


Light in the Darkness

by GallifreyGryffindorGirl



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrien Agreste Knows, Aged-Up Character(s), Angst, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Good Parents Sabine Cheng & Tom Dupain, Guilt, Not Canon Compliant, Protectiveness, Sabine Cheng and Tom Dupain Know, Unplanned Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-30
Updated: 2020-04-20
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:02:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 40,296
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23398915
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GallifreyGryffindorGirl/pseuds/GallifreyGryffindorGirl
Summary: One month after the defeat of Hawkmoth, Marinette's life is lost to turmoil without her Kitty by her side. She blames herself for what happened during the battle, and spends half her nights looking for Chat Noir. Rather than finding Chat, she finds her equally lost old school friend, Adrien.Chat knows the face behind his Ladys mask, and though he tried to stay away he found himself unable to walk away from her again. He wants to protect her, even if that means from himself...When the Butterfly miraculous is stolen, and Gabriel escapes prison, can Adrien step up as Chat to see his own father locked behind bars again? Can he ever earn back his place at Ladybugs side?
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Alya Césaire/Nino Lahiffe, ladybug - Relationship
Comments: 42
Kudos: 89





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Honestly, I started writing this months ago when I first started watching the series (and then lost it when my computer broke for nearly a whole year, oops)- because of that, this story has ended up not following what is cannon from the show. I'm also only putting up the first chapter for now, depending on feedback I'll try and upload more. Thank you x

There where so many things that she should have done that day.

She _should_ have been faster.

She _should_ have been smarter.

She _should_ have been braver.

_She should_ have taken the hit that nearly killed Chat Noir. _She should_ have been the one to break her arm saving civilians, not Carapace. _She should_ have made sure _all_ her friends where okay.

Marinette sighed, taking her frustration out on the bread dough in front of her, slamming it on the counter before kneading it with all her strength. She saw her father raise an eyebrow at her out of the corner of her eye, but wisely he didn’t comment. Besides, her behaviour wasn’t that unusual, everyone had been acting a little differently since Hawkmoth was defeated.

That had been just over a month ago. What had started as a pleasant day, had ended when Hawkmoth had sent a dozen Akumatized villains into the city – a last ditched effort to draw out the heroes and take their Miraculous. It was devastation to say the least, not even her lucky charm could save the entire damage at the end of the fight, leaving everyone with injuries and reminders of what had happened. And to discover Hawkmoth’s true identity was Gabriel Agreste, it was the only thing Paris was talking about. Marinette herself had felt an odd sense of anger and betrayal, despite not knowing the man too well herself, she had rather felt it on the behalf of her friend Adrien.

Adrien… that was another thing she should have done. She should have been faster getting to the Agreste manor, but her best effort simply hadn’t been enough in that regard. By the time Marinette had made it to the manor, Adrien was gone… and he hadn’t been seen or heard from since.

It hurt, of course, but Marinette could understand why he’d disappeared from the public eye. Though it did nothing to stop the press inventing rumours that Adrien had in fact helped his father, something she refused to believe for a second, nor did it stop them hounding his old classmates. Marinette herself had been victim to these surprise interviews, last time it happened Alya had nearly beaten the crap out of the reporter for bad mouthing Adrien, but had to settle for giving them a harsh verbal beating as Nino and Marinette’s father held her back in the bakery’s seating area.

Nino and Alya were determined to try and find Adrien, and though Marinette was just as worried she had other things on her mind. For one thing, she hadn’t seen hide nor hair of her partner, Chat Noir, since Hawkmoth was defeated. And considering the injuries he had (he’d tried to hide it, but she’d seen it when he coughed up blood during the fight) she was more than a little concerned about her kitty. No one had heard from or seen Chat Noir, Mairnette had begun patrolling Paris’s rooftops every night in hopes she’d see even a glimpse of the leather clad superhero, even when her fellow hero’s had their patrol nights, she’d often see Rena and Carapace or even Queen Bee, but she never said a word to them – her mind preoccupied with Chat. But what else could she do besides search, and hope?

She slammed the dough down again, and wiped her sweaty brow on her wrist, trying to not get the flour that covered her hands smeared over her head… again.

“Marinette?” her mother’s voice surprised her, and she looked up to find both her parents preparing to shut the bakery and head upstairs for the night “honey, it’s getting late, do you want to stay here tonight?”

A glance at the clock and she discovered they were right, and she had completely lost track of the time. She supposed it was a good thing Alya was staying with Nino for the night, otherwise her best friend would likely have been on the phone already worried about where she was. She had moved in with Alya a few months ago when they started their last year in university, a small two-bedroom apartment not too far from the bakery, but she knew her parents missed her even if she relished the freedom of living without them.

“No, that’s okay. I have some commissions to finish anyway, sales on the Ladyblog have been going nuts ever since…” Mari trailed off with a slight shrug, brushing a strand of hair from her face with her wrist to avoid getting any flour on her face.

“I can imagine” Sabine smiled softly at her daughter. Marinette had come clean about her other identity a week or so after the final fight against Hawkmoth. Honestly, she didn’t think her daughter would have admitted it if she hadn’t been so upset about Chat Noir disappearing, fearing the worst as the poor boy had been quiet hurt. Sabine hadn’t been able to say or do anything in the face of that revelation at the time, part of her shocked her daughter was a renowned superhero and the other part shocked she hadn’t realised it earlier, though Marinette had later explained it was part of the magic of her suit to cloak people from recognising her. “Everyone in Paris is proud of you sweetie, of all you kids.”

“Yeah…” Mari’s voice trailed off softly went to the sink and washed the flour from her hands.

Behind her back her parents exchanged a glance. Her father cleared his throat “have you still not heard from Chat Noir?” he asked lightly, knowing it was a sensitive subject, but concerned for his daughter all the same. Both he and his wife and not failed to notice how their daughter had come to work in the bakery looking more and more exhausted since the fall of Hawkmoth. She was paler, with dark circles under her eyes, irritable and smiled less than she used to. Not even his well-timed dad jokes could seem to draw more than a half-hearted chuckle from her, and it broke his heart to see his little girl so sad.

Mari froze mid-handwash for a moment after her fathers’ question, but eventually she sighed again and resumed what she was doing without looking up. “No, I haven’t. I… I don’t know what to do. I might visit Master Fu, if Chat doesn’t want to be a superhero anymore, he may have surrendered his miraculous back… at least then ill know for sure he’s not coming back.”

Floating from behind the containers on a shelf where she wouldn’t be seen by any customers to the bakery, Tikki came over and wordlessly placed a small paw on Mari’s now clean hands. “Don’t give up hope yet Marinette, I’m sure Chat wouldn’t just leave without telling you.”

Mari smiled at Tikki, though her heart still felt heavy, but didn’t say anything to her kwamii as she began pulling on her coat. Before she left both her parents where sure to give her hugs that lasted a bit longer than the usual goodbye hug, and filled her a paper bag full of goodies to take home with extra cookies packed for Tikki. When Mari stepped out of the bakery into the cold October rain, popping up her black umbrella, she could admit that she felt a little lighter just to experience how much her parents cared and supported her.

the apartment she shared with Alya wasn’t too far from the bakery, a short walk usually, but there was something peaceful about the twilight rain and the lack of people on the streets. “How about a walk thought the park Tikki?” she asked out loud, not fearing anyone hearing her since there was no one around “you can see the last flowers before they die off for winter.”

“Oh, yes please!” Tikki giggled “I like the leaves this time of year too, such beautiful colours.”

“Yeah, they are pretty” Mari agreed, unable to keep a soft smile from her face as they walked through the park gates and past trees patterned in orange, red and brown leaves. With everything going on it had been a while since she had stopped to smell the roses so to speak, though she had never forgotten how beautiful her city was she always loved to stop and really appreciate it sometimes.

“Oh Marinette, look, look!” Tikki suddenly exclaimed near her ear, pointing her little paw in the direction she wanted her to look.

She turned and felt her jaw fall open slightly. She hadn’t walked through this park in weeks, so she hadn’t seen the spectacle that had become of the statue of Chat Noir and Ladybug that had been erected in her youth. It was currently littered with hundreds of gifts and tributes from the Parisian public, and she found herself drawn to it like a moth to a flame – curiosity getting the better of her. Across the path arounds the statue where candles, long since burned into a puddle of wax, figurines of the miraculous heroes, plushes, thank you cards, and handwritten notes. Some where even encased in plastic so as not to be ruined in the rain. Mari couldn’t resist crouching down and reading the one closest to her. It was a long letter, but in it the writer explained they had been an akuma victim and saved by Chat and Ladybug when she was a teenager and thanking them for getting rid of Hawkmoth. Shuffling around Mari couldn’t help but read the rest. Somewhere personal accounts just like the first one, some where just general fan letters giving thanks. Some where addressed to Carapace, Rena Rogue or Queen Bee for their personal roles as well.

When her gaze landed on a crayon drawing of a figure in black at the bottom of the pile, she crouched down to see it better, pulling it from the others slightly. The drawing was of Chat Noir and Ladybug in their usual post-battle ‘pound-it’ pose. It was adorable, and would have made her smile if not for the phrase ‘we miss you Chat’ scrawled in child’s handwriting at the bottom.

“Oh Chat… if only you knew how much we all missed you…” she muttered to herself, fingers trailing over the drawing thoughtfully, feeling her heart begin to ache again. It felt like she had lost so much when Hawkmoth was finally defeated, selfishly she couldn’t help but feel it wasn’t worth it…

“Do you always talk to yourself in the middle of dark parks in the pouring rain?” a rough sounding voice asked, making Mari gasp and look up. She was more than ready to defend herself, in or out of the Ladybug outfit, but when she looked up into the strangers face she dropped her prepared stance and gasped again, staring into the eyes of the last person she’d expected to see.

“Adrien!”

The young Agreste gave her a shy half smile from under the shadows of his dark hood. She could barely see his face, but she could see enough to recognise him, even with his usually combed hair damp and sticking to his pale face.

She turned to face him fully, “ohmygosh- I thought you left the city?!”

“Ah, eh, well… not exactly…” Adrien rubbed the back of his neck under the hood, looking a little uncomfortable “I just… had to get away. Press and all that… so the mayor had me hiding in one of his hotels but, honestly, I just had to get away from there too. Chloe has been a bit unbearable.”

Mari snorted at that “I can’t imagine, three weeks alone with Chloe to dote on her ‘Adrikins’” she teased him, using the nickname Chloe had used when they were still in school together.

Adrien chuckled a little “at least she doesn’t call me that much anymore but… I know she means well but she can be… suffocating. I needed to breathe so I snuck out while she was talking to Sabrina on the phone.”

“And now look at you” Marinette tutted, nodding towards his sodden sweatshirt “soaked to the bone.”

“Y-yeah” he wiped at his face as a droplet of rainwater fell from his hair and down his nose “I guess I should probably go back soon…”

Marinette chewed on her lip, eyes tracking his face. The downward turn of his lips, even when he tried to force a smile, and the way his shoulders where hunched over as though to protect himself, the way his eyes tracked around them, like he was afraid someone else would recognise him. “Adrien, why don’t you come home with me?”

“Ahh…” he looked away from her uncomfortably “you don’t have to offer Marinette, I probably shouldn’t have come over here in the first place anyway, if someone saw you with me…”

“Don’t be stupid Adrien, I’m glad to see you” she placed a hand on his soaked shoulder gently “we’ve really missed you Adrien, we understand why you left so suddenly but we still missed you. Besides, no one would dare come near you with Alya around. She scared the last reporter that tried to approach Nino about you so badly I think he ran into a streetlight to get away.”

“Reporters went after Nino?” if it was possible, his face paled even more.

“They went after everyone who went to school with you Adrien” she told him calmly, keeping her hand on his shoulder “and do you know what we all said?”

He looked uncertain if he wanted to hear the answer, as though he was half afraid she was going to suddenly explode and tell him how much his ex-classmates hated him, and Mari felt her anger towards Gabriel resurging. When she’d first seen him, first realised Hawkmoth was her friends’ father the whole time, a well-known icon and inspiration to Paris, she’d been so angry she felt sick with it – on behalf of Adrien, on behalf of everyone who’d been akumatized, on behalf of Paris, even on behalf of herself. The feeling had eventually gone away with everything else that happened since, but now she felt it awakening inside her heart again.

“We said” she said, her anger loaning her voice strength that had Adrien paying closer attention to her words “we said that you, Adrien, are one of the nicest most selfless people any of us have ever known. You where – are – always there when your friends need help, or cheering up, and we all adore you. We know you had nothing to do with… with Hawkmoth.”

“B-but… how can…” he struggled for a few moments, squeezing his eyes shut, and when he reopened them they were significantly more watery than they had been a few moments ago and she doubted it had much to do with the rain “how c-can you tr-trust me? He was my f-father!”

“We know you Adrien” Mari spoke softly, contradicting the burning anger she actually felt at the moment in favour of comforting her friend. She wouldn’t lie, that a small part of her actually felt guilty, as though it was partially her fault for her close friends’ distress. She swallowed those bitter feelings though, in favour of keeping her tone light and coaxing. “Come with me, I don’t live very far away. We can get you dry and… and I’m pretty sure there’s chocolate croissants in this bag.”

“Your dads?” his expression visibly brightened, and Mari had to hide a giggle behind her hand.

“Yeah, I work at the bakery some afternoons… I always come home with extras. Wanna help me eat them?”

“I…” he hesitated again “are you sure? Being seen with me might not be best right now…”

“I don’t care” she answered him honestly, looping an arm through his before he could try escape “besides… honestly I could use the company too. You’re a welcome distraction, Adrien Agreste, now let’s get you home and dry before you get sick.”


	2. Chapter Two

Adrien let Marinette lead him to her home, and while she chatted to him about her day at the bakery – something about the new flavoured jams her father was considering trying with a range of delightful goodies that only served to make his stomach growl – he couldn’t help but wonder if this was a good idea.

He hadn’t meant to approach her in the park. It was as though his feet and mouth seemed to have a mind of their own, since he would have no problems getting that close and still not had her recognise him – just one of the perks of being Chat Noir fifty percent of his time. He just couldn’t help it. She had looked so sad when reading all those letters left on the statue, and when she’d said out loud that she missed Chat it had damn near broke him down.

And now he was stuck, being led into her apartment by his arm, still torn between fleeing from her soothing presence and never wanting to leave her warmth again.

She explained to him on the way over that she shared the apartment with Alya, of course he’d known that before his impromptu disappearance but he’d never had the chance to visit – usually when they hung out it was someplace else, or at Nino’s which was across the street. Even then, his father had kept his schedule so busy he’d only seen his friends a handful of times in the past few months. Their apartment was actually pretty nice, considering the outer building was looking a little worn. Large, with wooden floors and cream walls, the main area was open plan between the kitchen and the living area which boasted a large well-used sofa and TV, while on the other wall sat two large windows with a view of the street below. There were two doors on either side of the TV, which he assumed led to the girl’s respective bedrooms, and another on his right that was open slightly enough for him to see it led to the bathroom.

Mari saw him looking around and felt self-conscious. The apartment was probably nothing like what he was used to, and it was pretty obvious that most of their furniture was second hand – Alya had become an incredibly thrifty shopper, and Mari was more than capable of restoring most of the pieces they found and give them a breath of new life. “I know our apartment isn’t luxurious, but your welcome here as long as you like.”

“N-no” he sneezed, rainwater still dripping from his hair and down his nose as he tried to correct her “it’s nice. I like it. It has… personality.” Which was something the Agreste manor had lacked, there had been no warmth there, more like living in a block of ice than a home.

“Thank you” Mari smiled “but we should get you warmed up, and out of those clothes.”

Adrien couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at her phrasing, though he knew she didn’t mean it how it sounded, and smirked a little as he watched blush spread across her cheeks.

“I didn’t mean it like that!” Mari smacked him lightly on the arm of his soaked sweatshirt, “get your mind out of the gutter Agreste, I just meant that your clothes are soaking. Go on, go take a hot shower and I’ll raid Alya’s room for some of Nino’s clothes for you to borrow.”

He chuckled, but obeyed her instructions, feeling himself relax – though the urge to leave again appeared once he’d closed the bathroom door and was separated from her. He couldn’t help it, eyeing up the bathroom window. It was small, but climbing out was still feasible if he transformed into Chat Noir…

“Don’t even think about it, kid…” his Kwami’s tired voice reminded him he wasn’t alone as Plagg floated out from under his sweatshirt. Adrien lifted a hand for Plagg to sit on, though the Kwami wasn’t normally one to stay still, he was still recovering from their accident during the battle with Hawkmoth and was silently glad of the support his chosen offered. “I don’t think I can manage two transformations today, if you wanna run out on your girlfriend you’ll have to face her first.”

“Not even if I fed you some camembert?” Adrien teased the little god, placing him gently on the top of some towels shelved near the shower as he tried to figure out how to turn the shower on.

“Camembert is magical, but it’s not a miracle cure” the tiny cat sighed, lying down on the towels with relief.

Adrien shook his head and said nothing. Truthfully, as much as a part of him wanted to flee there was a stronger part that begged him to stay. Besides, he wouldn’t push Plagg beyond his limits. He still felt incredibly guilty that the Kwami had been injured when they fell off that building – though the angrier part of his brain put much of the blame for that on Hawkmoth, on his father, it didn’t do anything to stave off his own feelings.

He climbed into the shower, and under the hot spray, tried to clear his head – but Plagg had other ideas.

“So… I thought you didn’t want anyone to see you? Walking up to your girlfriend in the park… that’s people seeing you.”

Adrien stuck his head out of the shower to glare at the Kwami, who shot him a lazy grin. Injured and exhausted, Plagg was still capable of being a little shit when he wanted. “I didn’t _want_ to be seen but… she was alone, it was getting dark and she looked really upset… what else could I do?”

“Riiiight” Plagg drawled “That’s why your ‘walk’ turned into stalking her bakery until she left right?”

Adrien had no good reply to that, so he stuck his face under the shower and said nothing. It was true, when he’d transformed and escaped the hotel (and Chloe) he’d almost immediately headed in the direction of the Dupain-Cheng bakery… not that he knew she’d actually be there, but it was like he was drawn there. How long he stood outside in the rain and watched her through the window? He’d never admit out loud.

“Do you think your girlfriend has any of those cheese Danishes?” Plagg piped up again, thinking with his belly.

“I don’t know… and she’s not my girlfriend, stop saying that.”

“How is she _not_ your girlfriend?” Plagg waved his little paws in the air incredulously, though Adrien didn’t see him.

“Because she’s Chat Noir’s girlfriend… or rather Ladybug is Chat Noir’s girlfriend, but Marinette doesn’t know that I’m Chat Noir so she’s not really my girlfriend!” Adrien hissed, annoyed.

“ _You are_ Chat Noir!” Plagg rubbed a paw down his face “you’re making this more complicated than it needs to be Adrien.”

Yeah, he probably was making it needlessly complicated, Adrien knew, but he couldn’t help it. First off, he’d found out Ladybugs secret identity by accident during their last battle with Hawkmoth. Knowing how closely she guarded that secret, even after she had begun dating Chat Noir, he couldn’t help feeling she’d hate him for knowing before she was ready to tell him. On top of that, once she found out her lover and best friend was also the son of her worst enemy? She’d loathe him. Probably never trust him again. Love him? How could she! She seemed perfectly fine with being his friend still, but he didn’t trust she’d feel the same once she knew he was so much more to her than this. Not until he could prove himself to her – though, he had no idea how to do that. But in his eyes, it was something he needed to do. He _needed_ to prove he was worthy of her before he could reveal himself to her.

****

Outside of the bathroom, Marinette was pottering around the kitchen with the intent to make hot chocolate for Adrien when he had finished his shower. She had already taken a few of the pastries and treats from the bag her parents had sent her off with, and put them on a plate. Tikki was currently sat on the countertop besides the plate, nibbling on a cookie twice the size of her.

“Marinette, are you alright?” her Kwami asked, concern heavy in her voice, as she watched her chosen suddenly stop what she was doing and leaned on the kitchen counter with a heavy sigh.

“I’m okay Tikki” Mari sent her Kwami a reassuring glance “just dizzy for a second. I probably stood up too fast when I was looking for the milk pan.”

Tikki didn’t look convinced “maybe you should eat something Marinette, you’ve been neglecting yourself too much lately!”

“Mm” Marinette gave a noncommittal shrug, knowing full well that Tikki was right but not willing to agree out loud. She knew from the look on the little red creatures face that she was going to argue, but Marinette was saved from a lecture at the sound of the apartment front door opening – forcing Tikki to gather her cookie and zoom into Marinette’s bedroom out of sight.

“Hey girl!” Alya greeted warmly, shaking off her soaked yellow umbrella as she entered the apartment.

“Hey, I thought you were staying at Nino’s tonight?” Mari crooked an eyebrow in question as she fetched the milk for the hot chocolate from the fridge.

“Oh, I am. I just left some things here that I want to take over” Alya shrugged, snagging a macaroon off the plate Mari had left on the countertop “how was the bakery today, your parents good?”

“Good as ever, dad’s thinking about using flavoured jams in his next croissant creation and he’s started designing these cupcakes based on Rena Rouge, Carapace and Queen Bee to sell alongside the Ladybug and Chat Noir cupcakes” Mari recounted, knowing Alya would want to feature the new cupcakes on the Ladyblog just as she had done the first ones.

Sure, enough her best friends’ eyes lit up “ooh, can get pictures and do a segment for the Ladyblog when he’s finished? I know the article I wrote about the Ladybug and Chat cakes brought bit more foot traffic to the bakery, you think he’d go for it?”

Mari laughed “I don’t see why not.”

Alya paused in the kitchen. Something was off, she realised, but she couldn’t quite figure out what it was yet. But she was getting the same feeling she did when she sensed a good story, and narrowed her eyes at her best friend.

“What’s got you so happy?” the red-head finally settled for asking.

“What do you mean?”

“C’mon Mari, this is probably the happiest I’ve seen you since Adrien went missing. Not that it’s a bad thing, but girl, I’ve been worried about you” Alya confessed, rubbing her neck self-consciously “I just wish you’d talk to me if your upset, but… it’s alright if you don’t want to.”

“Alya…” Mari turned to look at her friend fully “you… you don’t have to worry about me. I’ll be okay. I’ve been feeling a little under the weather lately so maybe that’s what’s wrong.”

Alya frowned “Nino said he saw you be sick the other day, are you sure you’re okay?”

“I’ll be fine” Mari repeated, shrugging. Nino had caught her being sick the other day, but honestly, she figured it was just her own anxieties making her nauseous lately. She’d told Nino as such at the time when he’d expressed his own concern, he’d probably told Alay about the incident anyway and worried her more though. Of course, Marinette probably didn’t help by missing meals and spending half her nights searching the rooftops for Chat Noir, not that she could tell Alya about that.

She could see that Alya wasn’t going to drop the subject, she could recognise the look on her best friends face – it was the same one she used when she was determined to get to the bottom of a particularly juicy story (or a stubborn best friend in this case), so Mari decided to divert her attention elsewhere.

“So, you’ll never guess who I found on my way home from the bakery.”

Alya perked, immediately distracted, taking a seat on one of the breakfast stools. “Oooh, are you holding out on me? Go on, who’d you find?”

With uncanny timing this was the moment when Adrien chose to peek out of the bathroom door, looking for Marinette and the spare clothes she promised to fetch him. Mari almost laughed at the expressions on their faces, the way Adrien’s eyes went huge when he realised Alya was there, and the way Alya’s jaw dropped open was comical.

“ADRIEN!” Alya shrieked.

“Um… hi” the model gave little finger wave, his voice barely more than a squeak, closing he bathroom door a little bit more as Alya jumped up from her seat, as though afraid she’d ambush him.

“Marinette, how can you have _Adrien_ stashed here and not tell me that first!” Alya turned an accusing finger on her best friend.

Mari held her hands up in surrender, laughing “In case you stalked into the bathroom while he was naked?”

Alya, it seemed, only noticed in that second that Adrien – still visible through a sliver of the bathroom door – was only wearing one of their fluffy pink towels around his waist. She cocked her eyebrow, a sly smile crawling into her face. “Oooh, it’s like that is it?”

“No!” Marinette waved her arms, a blush creeping across her cheeks “you _know_ it’s not like that Alya. I found him soaking wet from the rain and dragged him back here to get warm and dry. Speaking of, I hope you don’t mind but I took some of Nino’s clothes from your room for him to borrow?”

“Yeah no problem” Alya shrugged, watching with amusement as Mari stalked out of the kitchenette to retrieve the spare clothes for Adrien, handing them to him through the crack in the bathroom door. Once he’d closed the door again, she of course turned back to questioning her best friend. “So, you dragged Adrien home, immediately got him naked and I’m not supposed to be suspicious about that?”

Mari sighed, dropping her folded arms “you know I don’t see him like that anymore Alya. He wasn’t interested, it hurt for a while yeah, but I got over my crush and now we’re _just_ _friends_.” She’d moved on, but she didn’t confide that part to Alya as much as she wanted to. It was a little difficult to tell her best friend she’d been making out in secret with one of Paris’s superheroes without revealing she was also a superhero – or worse, getting strong armed into an interview for the Ladyblog.

It was one of the things that made handling Chat’s disappearance so difficult for Mari, that she wasn’t able to confide in her friends. She could always talk to Tikki about it, and the Kwami was always a great support, but it didn’t stop her missing the support her friends could give as well. They couldn’t know about her secret life, or her secret relationship. While her heart was breaking, Mari had to keep up a strong face so her friends didn’t think anything was amiss, piece two and two together and find her secret identity. Even if Hawkmoth was no longer a threat, it was for their safety.

“Just friends” Alya repeated, pulling a face “I hate that phrase, it sinks my ships like lead balloons.”

Mari shrugged, “I can’t change how I feel, and I don’t particularly want to become the stuttering mess around him that I was in school.”

“Yeah, that was embarrassing, but totally cute too” Alya laughed at the memory, wiggling so she could fish her phone out of her pocket “I better call Nino, if he finds out his BFF is here and we didn’t tell him he’ll throw a fit.”

Mari agreed, and while Alya called her boyfriend she went back to the kitchen to continue making the hot chocolate – though she made enough for four, instead of the two originally planned. Considering Nino lived quite literally across the street, it wouldn’t take too long before he made an appearance.

It was while she was stirring in the chocolate that the wave of dizziness came back. Mari was confused at first, when a weak feeling started in her wrists and climbed up her arms. It made her feel like she was trying to stir something that required more effort than milk and chocolate. Before she could really register the feeling however, it suddenly felt as though the world around her was spinning – for an alarming second she thought it was some kind of Akuma attack, though that was impossible – and dropped the whisk into the pan so she could grip the counter tops with both hands and steady herself.

Alya witnessed this move and dropped her phone in alarm, seeing how her friend had suddenly turned very pale and seemed to be holding onto the counter with a white-knuckle grip. “Marinette, are you alright?” she asked, moving closer and laying a hand gently on her arm “merde, you’re so pale! Have you even eaten at all today?”

“I-im fine” Mari tried to offer a reassuring smile, but couldn’t stop the stutter even as the world stopped spinning around her. “Just a dizzy spell. I’m okay.”

“You are _not_ okay” Alya protested in a tone she’d normally reserve for her younger siblings when they weren’t listening “I don’t know what’s going on but it looked like you were about to pass out there. You should go and see a doctor!”

“I’m-“

“If you say your fine one more time I’ll hit you with this whisk” Alya growled, glaring as she bumped Mari out of the way and took over stirring the hot chocolate before it burned. “I don’t know if you’re sick or just exhausted M, but I wish you’d look after yourself. Go sit down, I’ll finish the hot chocolate. Don’t want you to _actually_ pass out on the stove…”

Marinette stared at Alya’s profile, seeing her set jaw and hard eyes. Alya was really worried, she realised, and felt her resolve fading just a little at the realisation. Not knowing what else to say, she followed her instructions and went to sit down on the couch silently to wonder if her friend was right.

“I’m sorry Alya” Marinette peeked over the back of the couch, giving her best impression of puppy eyes knowing her best friend could rarely exist the look “I didn’t mean to worry you. I’ll look after myself better, I promise.”

“I wish I could believe you” Alya huffed “but I know you too well Mari, and stop giving me the puppy look. Will you just… go see a doctor or something. Maybe they can give you something to help you sleep or whatever.”

“I-“ Marinette was about to protest, but Alya threw her a pleading look and she felt the argumentative side of her die at the sight. “I… promise. I’ll see a doctor, but I just think I’m tired. I’ve been finishing a lot of the orders for the Ladyblog merchandise early!”

Alya rolled her eyes, but accepted the bluenettes promise and the not so subtle change in subject. “I knew it was a good idea to sell your designs on the blog. Now, lets get this hot chocolate finished before my boyfriend arrives to harass your boyfriend.”

Marinette stuck her tongue out “Adrien is not my boyfriend, he’s just a friend.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, we get to see a little bit of what Adrien is thinking.   
> Yep, the story will go into further detail about how he found out Ladybug's identity, and how Plagg got injured. For now, enjoy Adrien's angst riddled over-thinking


	3. Chapter Three

Alya had barely poured the steaming hot chocolate into four mugs before Nino came flying through the apartment’s front door, apparently not at all minding when he used his arm – still bound in a blue plaster cast from an accident he’d had a few weeks ago – to throw open the door calling out his best friends name. Oddly, Adrien had taken a few moments to answer, opening the bathroom door slowly and shyly greeting the other young man, his gaze set firmly on the ground near his feet.

Nino though, had never been one to allow Adrien’s habit of misplaced shyness to get in the way of their friendship. And, despite that he was still damp from the pouring rain outside, threw himself into a bro-hug that seemed to involve a lot of back slapping in Marinette’s opinion – Alya’s too if the raised eyebrow look they shared was anything to go by. The hug didn’t last too long though, before Nino replaced it with scolding his best friend for disappearing, which was shortly followed by him saying he understood why he’d run away but pleading he not do it again. Just watching the scene gave Marinette an emotional whiplash, but when she glanced at Alya again she found the red head was grinning and her eyes shone just a little bit too much.

For the most part, Adrien seemed a bit shell-shocked by the whole interaction. Marinette watched him with narrowed eyes as he sat on the couch beside her, accepting one of the mugs of hot chocolate from Alya, but rather than drink it he just stared at it… She nudged him, smiling brightly when he met her gaze and seeing how he finally relaxed, taking a deep sip from the mug and sighing when the rich flavour coated his tongue.

The rest of the evening passed by in a blurr. Alya and Nino had questions of course, mostly about where he’d been hiding, and the teasing was almost non-stop after he admitted to being locked in one of the mayor’s hotels with Chloe for a month. Eventually though, they ran out of jokes at his expense and shortly after ordering a pizza Nino challenged them to a few games of Ultimate Mecha Strike for old time sakes. The apartment was filled with warmth, laughter, and the occasional swearword when they where beaten on a particularly brutal match on the game.

Adrien felt his lips twitch, just barely the beginnings of a true smile, as he watched Nino drop his controller to tickle Alya before picking it back up and making his character deliver an epic blow that would no doubt win him the match while she screamed about cheating. For a few moments it was as though nothing at all had changed.

Yet, when he looked at them he couldn’t help but be haunted with the terrible things his own father had done to them. Lady Wi-Fi, the Bubbler, Oblivio. His own father had preyed on his best friends when they were at their weakest. But the worst was when he looked at Marinette… how he didn’t recognise those bluebell eyes staring at him every day he’d never know (and he’d never stop kicking himself for it either) but how many times had she been hurt because of his father? Physically hurt, fighting the akuma’s as Ladybug? He felt his stomach drop, realising that she had probably felt the same heartache whenever they had to battle their akumatized friends. When Marinette knew the truth, she’d hate him… 

“I don’t deserve you…” Adrien breathed aloud, though his eyes never actually waved from the television screen.

“What was that dude?” Nino peered around, sure he’d heard Adrien mutter something, and frowned “hey, is Marinette asleep?”

Surprised, Adrien and Alya both looked towards the corner of the sofa where Marinette was clearly passed out. She had snuggled herself into the soft pillows, her arms wrapped around one of the spare cushions with her face buried into it. Sitting beside her, Adrien was close enough to see the way her eyes flickered, and though he hoped whatever she was dreaming about was pleasant the furrowing of her eyebrows and the downward turn of her lips said otherwise. He had to resist the urge to smooth a sliver of escaped hair from her face, or to lean in and place a kiss on her head, neither of which he could do with their friends watching.

“We should let her sleep” Alya sighed, picking up the TV remote to lower the volume “I don’t think she’s getting much rest, she nearly passed out earlier.”

“What?” Both Nino and Adrien exclaimed.

“Mmm, while making hot chocolate” Alya removed her glasses and rubbed the stress from her eyes “I don’t think she’s been getting enough sleep… but I didn’t know she was _that_ bad. I guess I have been spending a lot of time at Nino’s lately…”

“Don’t blame yourself babe” Nino threw his cast-bound arm around Alya’s shoulders, squeezing her to him tightly “its not your fault, we all know how Mari gets when she’s worried about something.”

“Yeah…” Alya didn’t sound convinced, eyes straying towards the sleeping form on the couch. She couldn’t help feeling she should’ve been around more to help her best friend, knowing she seemed to take Adrien’s sudden disappearance just as badly as Nino had – despite continuing to protest that her feelings for her old crush had died a long time ago. Even though Alya had spent most of the last few weeks with Nino, especially as he’d needed help with his broken arm the first few days, she’d seen how miserable Marinette had been when she was around.

“Besides, now Adrien is back she’ll probably be back to her normal self in no time!” Nino snickered, even when Alya elbowed him sharply in the ribs throwing a look towards the blonde model. Adrien though, didn’t seem to have noticed what he’d said, and was staring gently at Marinette’s sleeping with a soft smile forming on his lips, his hand twitching as though he was resisting the urge to reach out and touch her. She always looked so cute when she was asleep, so small, you’d never guess she was an ass kicking superheroine.

Seeing Adrien was completely distracted, removing the throw from the back of the sofa to tuck Mari in, Alya took a few quick snaps on her phone of the tender moment – more to remember the cuteness, but apart of her was totally going to tease Marinette with the pictures. They continued playing video games, snacking on microwaved popcorn, laughing, until the early hours of the morning when they could no longer keep their eyes open. For Adrien, when he finally fell asleep that night, the weight on his heart had lifted ever so slightly.

*****

Marinette opened her eyes with a grimace, harsh sunlight blinding her momentarily. She sat up, yawning widely, and stretched in an effort to rid herself of the last dregs of sleep – noticing that she’d obviously forgotten to close her curtains before she’d gone to sleep. Odd, but it wouldn’t be the first time she’d forgotten when her mind was elsewhere. Throwing back her blanket however, finding herself still fully clothed in yesterdays outfit, seemed to bring back her entire memory of the night before – finding Adrien, inviting him back, Alya and Nino coming over, and she was vaguely certain that she’d passed out sometime around the third or fourth time Alya beat Nino on Mecha Strike.

“Morning Marinette” Tikki peered over the top of the wardrobe, where Mari has made a space for her, using conveniently Kwami sized doll furniture. On the top of the wardrobe Tikki had her own bed, armchair, a fuzzy rug and a dining table that was somewhat smaller than the cookies Tikki usually ate. The Kwami stretched before floating down to her chosen.

“Oh no, Tikki” Mari sighed, chewing on her lip as she held out a hand for Tikki to land on “I fell asleep before I could patrol last night!”

“So?” Tikki cocked her head to one side “it was Queen Bee’s day to do a patrol. Besides Marinette, you’ve been out nearly every night and your exhausting yourself!”

“But what if last night Chat was out looking for Ladybug and I wasn’t there?” Mari whispered, distressed. What if Chat had gone out looking for her, but she wasn’t there? What if he thought she never looked for him?

“Marinette!” Tikki reached up and touched her chin with a little paw, drawing Marinette’s drifting gaze back to her “you can’t function on ‘what-if’s’. You needed to rest, if you’re not careful you’ll really hurt yourself and how would Chat feel then?”

Mari blinked. Truthfully, she did feel quite a bit better after a full night’s sleep, though she still felt a bit… off. Not quite sick, but not great either. “Your right Tikki…” she muttered, rubbing the Kwami’s head with a finger “I do feel a little better…but I’m going to search for Chat tonight. I can’t miss two nights in a row.”

“Alright” Tikki sighed, pushing Mari’s finger away and floating up from her hand “but maybe you should do as your friend suggested and see a doctor. I’m worried about you too!”

Marinette chuckled lightly, not at all surprised that Tikki had overheard her conversation with Alya in the kitchen, and knew that if the Kwami agreed then it was unlikely she’d heard the end of it until she’d actually gone to get a check-up. “I’ll see if I can get an appointment after class. Even if nothing is wrong, they might be able to give me something to help me sleep better…”

Tikki seemed satisfied with that, and sat back on the wardrobe as chatting nonsense as Mari got ready for the day. Feeling a slight chill the in air that day, Mari decided that jeans and a oversized jumper where a good way to go. Besides, it gave her the excused to wear one of her new designs that she’d not yet shown Alya as a possible feature on their Ladyblog store. The jumper was black knit, with lime green trim around the collar, and paw prints in the same colour on the sleeve cuffs that could be pulled over her hands. She’d also added a hood to the jumper, though it wouldn’t do much to protect against the weather, it did feature triangular black cat eats – which in her opinion really completed the Chat Noir inspired jumper. She finished the look by typing her hair in a braid now that it was long enough to abandon the pigtails look of her teen years, added some dark eye makeup, and black knee-high boots.

“Ready to face the day!” she mumbled with one last look in the mirror as she stumbled out of her bedroom door, her steps faltering slightly when she was greeted with the sleeping form of Adrien on the couch.

He looked so much more peaceful when he was asleep, she thought, lingering briefly to watch him. Already he looked much better than when she’d found him the evening before, though she mused it wasn’t hard to look better than that. He had more colour to him now, and his hair was light and soft looking – almost enough to tempt her to reach out and touch, just to see. She didn’t though, taking a full step away from him just to resist the temptation. That would be creepy.

Instead, with a final look in his direction, she threw on her long raincoat and grabbed an apple for her breakfast on the way out of the apartment.

Last night’s rain had long since cleared, leaving in its wake a surprisingly warm autumn day. Marinette loved the fresh smell of the Parisian streets after rain, it was as though new life had been breathed into the plants that adorned the streets and balconies, and took her time with the walk to class. Though she’d received many offers from many prestigious colleges after graduation, she had chosen to study and the nearby Paris college of Arts. It meant she didn’t have to move far from her parents, and it allowed her to continue her duty as Ladybug and protect the city. Sure, before she had become Ladybug she’d had dreams of going to study in New York or Italy, but she was content to remain in Paris – and now Hawkmoth was defeated, who was to say she couldn’t travel to these places and so many more to further her education?

The rest of the day was something of a blur for her. Sitting in a lecture for a few hours, taking notes of the different ruffle styles and fabrics best suited, doodling ideas on the sides of her notes whenever something particularly inspired her – but like always, she eventually found herself staring wistfully out of the window at the expanse of rooftops spreading as far as she could see and wishing to see a flash of black leather bounding across the blissful scenery.

By the time they took a break for lunch she had a text from Alya, saying she and Nino where helping Adrien collect his things from the hotel he’d been using to hide out after they’d convinced him to move into the spare bedroom in Nino’s apartment. She grinned at that, replying how great she thought it was and that she’d be home a little late – she’d been lucky and gotten an appointment with a doctor when she called, thankfully someone else had cancelled so they managed to slot her in quickly. Alya’s response was (as usual) fast, telling her she was making a celebratory dinner and she’d make sure the guys waited for her to get home before eating.

The rest of her afternoon was spent workshopping with her professor and fellow classmates over their portfolios – Marinette rather enjoyed this part, her professor always encouraging them to share techniques with fellow classmates though never forcing them to show one another their designs, knowing how protective of their work designers could be. Mari never minded sharing her doodle designs with her classmates, though kept her more personal designs to herself. She always enjoyed discussing ideas with one of her shyer classmates, Dani, who had confided she was designing her final portfolio after being inspired by the old-fashioned sweet shop her parents ran. Dani had gotten really excited when Mari promised to take her to visit her parent’s bakery one day after class, and the bluenette couldn’t help but find her child-like enthusiasm infectious.

It was why she was still feeling light-hearted and unworried as she sat across from a doctor explaining why she had made an appointment.

“I see” the doctor nodded, making notes, and pushing her glasses up her nose with her free hand “aside from the exhaustion, nausea and the dizziness are there any other symptoms you’ve noticed? Anything at all, even trivial things?”

Marinette thought for a second, chewing her lip in the near complete silence of the doctors office, before answering “I’ve had heartburn a few times, and some back pain, but that might be more from sewing all night if I’m honest.”

The doctor nodded, giving her a once over “and you’ve not had an accident’s recently, not banged your head or anything?”

Mari flashed to all her fights as Ladybug, the amount of times she had been injured or hit her head hard enough to see stars… and shook her head slowly. “Uh… not recently” she frowned – even if the lucky charm cure had missed something (and it could, after particularly rough fights when there was a lot destroyed) the last fight had been over a month ago. She couldn’t still be injured, could she?

The doctor paused, obviously taking note of her uncertain answer, scribbled something quickly before putting down her notepad. “Well, I’d like to run some tests on you Marinette. Unfortunately, your symptoms can cover quite a few conditions that spring to my mind and I’d prefer to be safe than sorry – and until we know for sure what, if anything, is wrong I can’t prescribe anything.”

Mari raised her eyebrows, surprised at the seriousness in the doctor’s tone.

“Don’t worry” the doctor reassured, seeing her face “most of what I suspect could be wrong isn’t really anything to worry about. But I’d like to rule out the worst, to be sure. So, we’ll start off with checking your blood pressure, vision and hearing. Then I’d like to get some blood and a urine sample to send to our labs, would that be okay?”

Half an hour later Marinette was walking away from the doctor’s office in a daze, and the promise of a phone call with the test results in a few days.

“Are you alright Marinette?” Tikki asked from her purse, peering out carefully to avoid being spotted by anyone who might glance over.

“I… I don’t know Tikki. Do you think, could the lucky charm cure have missed something if I really hurt myself during a battle?”

Tikki didn’t answer immediately “the lucky charm cure is magic, but its not perfect either. You know this. But your also my chosen, and the wielder of that power when your transformed. If you did really hurt yourself, the cure should prioritise that injury over anything else.”

Mari stopped walking, ducking into an alley so she could open her purse fully and look down at Tikki properly. “But what if it missed something? God Tikki, what if I did some serious damage to myself? Or worse, what if one of the other heroes got seriously injured and the cure didn’t heal them because it was stuck healing me? What if- “

“Marinette” Tikki tried to interrupt, her blue gaze wandering to the street they had just left where people had started to run past them.

“-a civilian was really hurt, and the cure couldn’t save them after healing me? Shouldn’t the cure prioritise the innocent? Oh no, is- “

“Marinette!” Tikki had floated up to tug on her chosen’s sleeve, trying to snap her out of it.

“-that why the cure couldn’t heal Carapace’s broken arm? Or Rena’s bruised ribs? What if that’s why Chat Noir has disappeared, because he was too injured for the cure to heal?”

“MARINETTE!” Tikki yelled, flying up into her face and stamping her little foot on air angrily.

“Tikki?”

“Look!” Tikki pointed towards the street, where people where still running – and terrified screams where now heard some distance away. Mari frowned, confused – then felt her stomach drop completely when she heard a terrified scream.

“AKUMA!”

She glanced at the kwami floating by her face “ready?”

Tikki nodded “ready!”

“Spots on!”

*****

When Ladybug landed on the rooftop adjacent to the now empty street, she thought she was seeing things. Despite Akumatized civilians being an almost everyday norm for the last few years, a dog the size of your average house was definitely not an everyday sight in the modern streets of downtown Paris. She glanced over the scene first, making sure no civilians had been trapped below, before focusing on the dog.

It wasn’t an akuma, she knew that much. Hawkmoth had never akumatized anyone into an actual animal. Animal-like, yes, but this, no? She was actually pretty certain this was a Sentimonster, especially considering they hadn’t found the peacock miraculous when they’d checked the Agreste Manor for it. Settling on that idea, she decided to wait a few more minutes in case one of the other miraculous holders appeared to help – hoping with all her heart to hear a flirtatious greeting from a certain black cat – and swung her yoyo to the next rooftop, getting closer to the canine sentimonster without it seeing her.

Up close, she could see that it was a police dog, complete with a blue K-9 vest, and it seemed to be keeping everyone away from the a particular stretch of street that was now devoid of civilians and covered in nothing but overturned, and somewhat crushed, cars.

After waiting, scanning the rooftops with keep eyes and seeing none of her fellow heros on their way, Ladybug sighed knowing she couldn’t put off the fight any longer. Determined, she threw her yoyo aiming for the rooftop closest to the giant creature pacing the empty street. The dog’s gaze landed on her as soon as she swung to a rooftop by its head. It snarled, giving her a glimpse of wicked looking teeth, and lunging for her with snapping jaws. Ladybug threw her yoyo for a nearby streetlight, zipping away but feeling its hot breath of her back as it barely missed her.

Landing with a grimace she looked around, hoping to find whatever held the Amok.

The dog howled, her only warning before it lunged for her again, chasing her away a short distance before it slowed, returning back to the original street it had appeared from. It was almost like it was guarding something, she thought, but what she didn’t know just yet. She needed to get closer!

Preparing to swing her yoyo, Ladybug called out “here boy!” and whistled.

The dog snarled, ears pressed against its head, leaving its guarded street to lunge for her again. This time Ladybug was prepared, throwing her yoyo and wrapping it around the dog’s muzzle before it could even open its jaws. Swinging in a wide arch she wrapped the unbreakable string around twice more before landing on the ground and pulling tight. The dog’s mouth snapped shut, and he whined swiping with his paws to try and get the makeshift muzzle from his face.

Sweating with exertion, and hoping to finish this soon, Ladybug looked around the street in hopes she would be lucky enough to find the Amok amongst the crushed cars the dog had been guarding, all the while keeping a tight hold of her yoyo string. Up close she could see now they were police cars, made sense with the sentimonster being a police dog, and thankfully everyone appeared to have escaped them before they were crushed.

Her eyes landed on it just as she felt a particularly hard tug on the yoyo string, yanking her arm viciously and nearly pulling her over. The dog had stood on the string in an effort to get it off his muzzle. But Ladybug had seen the one thing that appeared out of place on the street yet might have a connection to the sentimonster dog. A toy police dog, obviously a child’s toy, abandoned on the street during the chaos no doubt. It was a little further away than she could reach, not without letting the dog loose again…

The dog made the decision for her, managing to push the string from its muzzle before Ladybug could think what to do. Pulling the yoyo back to her while the dog tried to get over its disorientation, she did the only thing she could think to do, throwing the yoyo in the air and calling for her lucky charm, the dog chasing her as she ran.

She nearly stumbled to catch the lucky charm, and was thankful when she heard the dog yelp and looked over her shoulder to see it had fallen over something on the street giving her the time to put some distance between then and figure out what to do next. Taking refuge in the doorway of a shop, just out of the dog’s sight, she took a look at what her lucky charm was.

When she saw what it was, she couldn’t help but asking out loud “really?” even though Tikki couldn’t answer. It was a dog toy. A ladybug patterned squeaky ball to be exact.

She looked up, puzzling out what to do. Normally when she was looking for what to do, the lucky charm power would show her by lightning up something significant with the red and black polka-dots of her ladybug pattern. This time it seemed Tikki had gone for the obvious-distraction solution, as the entire street was lit up with polka-dots (or at least to her it was). Whistling to make sure the dog was looking, Ladybug threw the ball as hard and as far down the street as she could, its impossibly loud squeak immediately attracting the dog’s attention as it gave chase right past her. once it had gone by, Ladybug ducked out of the shop doorway and towards the toy she’d seen earlier. Before it could notice it was chasing a decoy, Ladybug snapped the plastic toy and felt nothing but relief when the blue feather floated from it. Swinging her yoyo she captured the Amok, purifying it and bidding the new white feather goodbye as it floated away on the breeze. The giant dog disappeared, and for a moment she was surrounded by nothing but dead silence, save for the distant sound of sirens fast approaching.

Ladybug turned with a half-formed grin and her arm raised slightly, only to remember no one was there to bump her first and yell ‘pound it’. She let her arm drop sadly, rubbing her chest with the other hand like she could rub away the sudden empty feeling in her breast.

Normally at this point Ladybug would throw her lucky charm in the air, declare miraculous ladybug to clean up the mess of the fight, and disappear before anyone arrived on the scene. But there was something different about this scene – and it wasn’t just the fact a sentimonster had appeared to be guarding this street for no obvious reason she could see. There was something nagging at the back of her mind, a detail she hadn’t noticed. Ladybug walked the scene, the silence only broken by the approaching sirens, past the rubble that had tripped the dog and the overturned partially crushed cars. Now she studied them, she realised they were police cars – and an armoured van.

Had they been transporting something? Money? Was that what the Amok was guarding? Even as the first beep of her earing rang, Ladybug decided to wait on the approaching police and get a few answers. If Mayura – if she was even still the holder of the peacock miraculous – had started acting without Hawkmoth, she needed to know her motivations.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter three, in which everyone watched each other sleep in a not at all creepy fashion and Mari has the worlds most attentive doctor. (I actually go some advice from the doctors I work with about Mari's symptoms here so that was fun). 
> 
> Chapter four needs more tweaking, but should be up soon as I can - but the Covid pandemic has anyone who works healthcare going stark raving loony with exhaustion (me included, yippee *sarcasm*) and might take a bit longer if my hospital gets busier. Hopefully not though, stay safe everyone!!!


	4. Chapter Four

The police arrived just as Ladybug had reached the middle of the street, standing by some rubble that had tripped the dog when it had chased her.

“Ladybug?” one of the officers asked, “what happened, was it an Akuma?” his voice held fear, and just a little accusation. She understood why, after they unmasked and captured Hawkmoth things like this where not supposed to happen anymore, but still felt herself getting defensive and had to fight to keep her tone calm when she spoke.

“No. This was a sentimonster… something slightly different to an Akuma, sometimes harder to spot actually. But they are made by another miraculous holder, Mayura was the last one we knew about and she was a known ally of Hawkmoth” Ladybug explained briefly, her words clipped with barely contained frustration. More officers where arriving on the scene now, listening to her as they took in the damage with wide eyes.

“Was it really a giant dog, that’s what the reports we’ve been getting in said?” a nearby officer asked, looking up from the crushed police car he was examining. He whistled lowly when she nodded, and smiled “well, thankfully we have our superhero’s. That Chat Noir’s work?” he asked, pointing at the rubble beside her.

Actually, now that he pointed it out, she realised the rubble did look a lot like Chat Noir’s cataclysm…

She was pondering it as she spotted the ball her lucky charm had made, lying near the rubble. Snatching it she threw it in the air, crying out “Miraculous Ladybug!” and watching as the swarm of ladybugs appeared and cleaned up the mess made by the sentimonster, including the rubble that had her thinking…

She was distracted again by cries of her name.

“Ladybug! Ladybug over here!” as if summoned before the police were able to set up a perimeter, a dozen or so reporters had appeared brandishing cameras and microphones. “Is it true there’s a new villain threatening Paris?” one asked, shoving a microphone under her nose.

“Witnesses report seeing you fight the dog alone Ladybug, where are Paris’s other heros?”

“Are the citizens of Paris in danger of akumatization again?”

“Ladybug, where is Chat Noir?!”

The question where overlapping and fired in rapid succession, she was unable to keep track of who asked what and felt like she was going to get whiplash trying to keep up with them.

“Everyone, everyone give Ladybug some space!” the officer from earlier got between her and the reporters, his arms open wide and taking a few measured steps forward to make them back off.

“It’s okay, I don’t mind answering a question or two while I have time” Ladybug assured him, even as her earrings beeped again – Tikki wouldn’t be able to hold her transformation much longer “but I don’t have much time to give!”

“Where were the other hero’s during this fight?” a reporter jumped in ahead of the others at her offer.

“My fellow heroes are taking a well-earned rest after the defeat of Hawkmoth!” Ladybug put on a smile and as the camera’s pointed at her she hoped to god it didn’t look as strained as if felt. “But rest assured, Paris is always protected!”

“What about Chat Noir, is it true he didn’t survive the fall with Hawkmoth?” a different reporter asked, shoving his microphone directly into Ladybugs face and making her back up a little to avoid it touching her nose. She frowned at him, for both his actions and the question, but was saved when her earrings beeped a third time giving her a reason to leave.

“I’m sorry, I wish I could answer more but I need to go!” was the last thing she said, before swinging her yoyo and escaping to the rooftops. She didn’t stop running until she was a few streets away, and even then, it was only because she was surprised into stopping by a flash of orange and green.

“Ladybug, wait!” Rena Rouge cried out, only one rooftop away. Ladybug stopped from sheer surprise, allowing the fox and turtle holders to land in front of her. She felt her gut do a flip flop when she noticed Carapace’s broken arm was still bound in a cast – though his miraculous transformation has moulded it into a turtle shell cover to protect it – and forced herself to look away.

“Are you alright Ladybug?” Carapace asked, looking her up and down “we didn’t see the news until a few minutes ago, sorry we missed the action.”

“Yeah, we’re so sorry, you shouldn’t have had to fight the sentimonster alone” Rena added, her gaze sympathetic “not that you couldn’t handle it of course!”

“I’m fine” Ladybug replied, though she noted herself that her tone came off a little harsh. She was actually surprised to find herself feeling annoyed, though she couldn’t for the life of her put just one reason to the emotion. Was she annoyed that she’d had to fight alone? That Rena and Carapace had been too slow to help her with the sentimonster? Chat Noir had never taken this long to react! Maybe that was why she was really annoyed, the reporter’s stupid question about Chat…

The other two heroes raised their eyebrows at her tone but said nothing about it.

“What’s going on, is Mayura the new Hawkmoth then?” Carapace asked, rubbing a hand along his chin thoughtfully.

“It’s possible, she worked with Hawkmoth in the past, but it seemed to me the sentimonster was protecting something…” Ladybug explained quickly, her earrings beeping urgently as Tikki warned her of the impending de-transformation. “I have to go; I’ll get in contact with you when I can, and we can meet to discuss it alright?”

She didn’t wait for their replies, swinging a few more streets away and ducking into an alley just as the transformation faded and an exhausted Tikki reappeared.

“Thank you for keeping the transformation that long Tikki” Mari thanked her kwamii, cupping her hands so she’d have a place to sit and rest.

“No problem Marinette, but maybe don’t make a habit of it” Tikki giggled tiredly, accepting the cookie offered from the confines of Mari’s purse.

“Let’s hope Mayura doesn’t make a habit of creating sentimonsters” Mari retorted, dragging her free hand down her face with a grimace “we should visit Master Fu, amoks are harder to spot than Akuma’s where…”

Tikki agreed that they should visit Mast Fu, returning with her mostly eaten cookie to the safety of Marinette’s purse as they made the short walk to the tea shop where Master Fu had chosen to reside since the start of the year. The old master normally liked to move his location before too long, in order to keep the other unused miraculous’ safe from anyone hunting them – like Hawkmoth. Sometimes he shared his new locations with her, and sometimes he didn’t until he needed to contact her. Thankfully when he’d moved into the tea shop, he’d been willing to share that location with her, and surprisingly it wasn’t too far from her apartment.

Tucked away between tall buildings that loomed over it, the tea shop looked unassuming, most people would walk right past it without even a second glance compared with the fancier establishments Paris boasted on the same street. Then again, that was the whole point. She opened the door and the little bell gave a cheerful chime that made her smile – though that smile soon slipped from her face when she looked around.

The entire shop was empty. Surfaces that had been polished and shiny last she’d visited a few weeks ago now looked as though they held a years’ worth of dust.

“Dammit!” Marinette cursed out loud, causing Tikki to peer out of the purse on her hip curiously.

“Oh no” the kwami sighed “Master Fu must have moved again!”

“Probably right after we dropped off the butterfly miraculous” Mari agreed, running a finger through the dust on the nearby table.

“Don’t be so sure” Tikki argued “Master Fu has been covering his tracks for years, he knows how to make a place look abandoned. Besides, Nooroo wasn’t in a great condition after Hawkmoth abused him. Master Fu wouldn’t have moved unless it was absolutely necessary with an injured Kwami.”

So, she may have just missed Master Fu, or he may have moved weeks ago, either way Marinette was left frustrated with no idea where the old teacher was. She didn’t share her ire with Tikki though, knowing her kwami was only trying to help and didn’t deserve her annoyance. Without another word, or option, she left the abandoned tea shop and started the walk home lost in swirling thoughts of amoks and miraculous’.

*****

“Girl where the hell have you been?!” Alya threw her arms around Mari before the latter had even gotten in the door. “Would it kill you to answer your phone, I’ve been trying to call you for hours!”

“Sorry, I left my phone on silent after class, what’s wrong?” Mari feigned ignorance – though it was hard to, the streets of Paris where alive with the news of a new ‘akuma’ attack, though it was reported as not being an akuma people where too busy being afraid to get it right.

“What do you mean ‘whats wrong’ didn’t you hear? Ladybug had to fight a Sentimonster!” Alya stared at her like she had two heads “it was near your school how did you now know?”

“I went to see a doctor this afternoon, remember? Only appointment I could get was at a clinic across the seine, I must have missed everything” she lied quickly, years of making up excuses making it easier than she would have liked, breezing past Alya into the sitting room where Nino and Adrien where sitting on the sofa with the news on. Adrien looked up at her approach, relief evident on his expression as he jumped up.

“When Alya said your school was nearby we got worried” he confessed, glancing up and down as though making sure she wasn’t injured.

“I wasn’t anywhere near the attack, I didn’t even know it happened” Mari assured him, sitting on the sofa so she could watch the news report. Adrien spotted Alya giving her best friend an incredulous look, apparently amazed she’d missed such big news, before he sat down beside Marinette.

The news was still reporting about Ladybugs battle with the sentimonster, showing mobile footage taken by the civilians who had been nearby – most of it grainy and hard to see – as well as an interview wit the officer Ladybug had spoken to after the fight trying to explain what she had said, that it wasn’t an akuma. It also reported that though the other heroes hadn’t been in the battle, Rena Rouge, Carapace and Queen Bee had all been spotted helping panicked civilians during the aftermath – though Chat Noir was still unaccounted for.

Adrien swallowed at that, but otherwise tried not to react. In the breast pocket of his shirt he could feel the soft weight of Plagg sleeping off their brief transformation. He, Nino and Alya had all been moving his meagre belongings – just clothes and a few sentimental items he’d escaped the manor with the night his father was arrested – into Nino’s spare room when the Alya’s phone had notified her of an akuma attack. They’d all been confused at first of course, but Alya quickly excused herself to go investigate and Nino when chasing after her of course. Left alone, and worried for Ladybug (Marinette was already gone when he woke up that morning, though he’d been tempted to follow her to her classes he’d been preoccupied with Nino’s offer to move into his spare room) he bribed Plagg with the promise not to get involved in the fight unless he absolutely had to, and a whole wheel of camembert. As Chat Noir, sticking to the shadows, he’d made his way to the scene of the fight and hidden from view. His Lady had things perfectly under control… she was more than capable of keeping her own in a fight, but he still twitched with the urge to protect her. In the end that urge was something he couldn’t keep under control, and he’d used his cataclysm on an old brick wall between two buildings to trip the sentimonster and give Ladybug a chance to get out of its sight.

“Still no Chat Noir” Alya clicked her tongue, disappointed “do you think that mean’s he’s never coming back?”

“I don’t know” Nino shrugged “maybe he’s not even in Paris anymore. I mean, he’s got to be around our age – or he looked like it anyway. What if, with Hawkmoth gone, he travelled away for school or something?”

“I hope not” Marinette breathed, though Adrien was sure he was the only one that heard her. He wanted to reach out, to comfort her, or perhaps grab her and scream that he was right there next to her… but he didn’t. He couldn’t.

“Hey Mari” Alya leaned forward “is that a Chat Noir jumper?”

“Oh, yeah” Mari tore her gaze from the TV and smiled at Alya “do you like it, I was thinking about adding the design to the Ladyblog in the future?”

“I love it, are those paw prints on the sleeves?”

Mari moved, tucking her hands into the sleeves to show off the paw prints, and reached around to throw up the hood with the kitty ear sewn on. Alya squealed, whipping out her phone to take a picture.

“I like it Mari, any chance of a Carapace one? I’m a turtle fan” Nino asked.

“Maybe” Mari thought about it “I could make the back of the jumper into a turtle shell pattern, ill have to throw together some designs.”

Beside her, unnoticed to his friends, Adrien felt his face burning. He was trying to contain his reaction to Mari’s jumper, but how could he not when she was not only dressed like him but looked absolutely adorable too?

Alya of course, wasn’t oblivious to the blush creeping up Adrien’s face and asked with a sly smile “what do you think of Marinette’s jumper Adrien?” causing the blue-eyed girl to turn and face him, her expression so hopeful he felt his heart stutter at the sight.

“I- uh i-its, y-your cute. I m-mean _your design_ , y-your design is cute” he tripped over his words, his tongue suddenly feeling a bit too big for his mouth and refusing to cooperate with his brain. “N-not that you’re _not_ cute I mean, your adorable!”

By this point Alya was cackling madly beside Nino, clutching her stomach with the force of her laughter, and Marinette was blushing so hard she let her face burning. Adrien gave up, before he managed to dig himself a bigger hole, not that he regretted what he said, and settled on giving her a sheepish smile as he rubbed his neck self-consciously.

Nino interrupted the laughter through, waving a hand at them to be quite as he focused on the TV “uh, guys…”

On the screen a large and rough looking police officer was reading out a statement they couldn’t quite hear, having turn the volume down when Mari had returned home. Not that they needed to hear what he was saying, as across the screen in deep red ‘pay attention to me’ print underneath his face was the titular message:

‘GABRIEL AGREST ESCAPES POLICE CUSTODY’

Mari felt her eyes grow huge, one of her hands twitching towards her purse where Tikki was hidden out of habit, while one clutched at her chest in surprise. It made sense to her now. The crushed police van, the sentimonster-dog guarding the street. Mayura had done this to help Gabriel escape custody.

She had almost forgotten Adrien beside her until he took a sharp breath.

“Dude…?” Nino asked, having noticed his reaction as well.

“I’m… okay” Adrien said, his voice strained.

“Are you… sure?” Mari asked, tilting her head in his direction “it’s... okay to _not_ be okay with this Adrien.”

“I…” the model’s expression seemed frozen, his entire body ramrod straight and stiff. Marinette thought he looked like a trapped animal, ready to bolt any second, and found herself reaching out a hand to grab his in the space beside her before he could do any such thing. The contact seemed to startle him, and he stared at her hand clasped over his until he felt her rub her thumb against his fingers, a gentle reminder to him that he was in safe company. He relaxed a little and released a breath he didn’t realised he’d held. “I… your right. I’m not okay, but it’s not like they won’t catch him. Famous face and all” he tried to joke, but his voice was flat.

“Your right Adrien, there’s no where he can go where someone won’t recognise him” Alya encouraged “besides, you’ve got bigger things to focus on Adrien.”

“Bigger things?” Marinette asked.

“Nino offered to let me rent his spare room” Adrien filled her in, gently squeezing the hand she still had clasped in his, appreciating the contact that seemed to be keeping his emotions grounded. Whereas part of him wanted to call for Plagg, leap across the Paris skyline and hunt down his father in a blind rage, another part was soothed by the simple touch and content to sit with his friends. Maybe he was just that starved for physical affection, he thought dryly.

“He’s also thinking about enrolling in university” Alya added encouragingly “since his dad didn’t let him earlier.”

“I still think you should do it dude” Nino urged “it’s a nice constructive ‘fuck you’, because you’re sticking it to him by doing something he didn’t want you to do and your doing something you want to pursue for yourself.”

“Though if you wanted to do that you should just walk around in sweatpants and cut your hair, that would really piss your dad off” Alya suggested with a snicker “I have scissors, want to give it a go blondie?”

“Don’t you dare” Adrien recoiled – but couldn’t help the smile that snuck its way onto his face at his friends teasing. Especially when Nino jumped up, intent on defending Adrien’s hair from Alya’s scissors threat in a valiant performance that somehow ended up with Nino pinned to the floor with Alya sitting victoriously on his back.

Amidst all the laughing and exchanging jokes, they all momentarily forgot about the attack and escape of Gabriel. Marinette even forgot about her hand clasped tightly in Adrien’s between them, unseen by their friends.

****

Hours later, Ladybug on the top ledge of the Eiffel tower, kicking her legs in the chilling breeze she was glad the suit mostly kept her from feeling. After they had helped Alya and Adrien move completely, and shared a pizza, Marinette had feigned having some coursework to finish and disappeared to room. There she’d sent a message to the other heroes, even if they were not transformed their Kwamii’s would inform them Ladybug was trying to reach them, to let them know to meet her there that night. She’d then gone on patrol, so of course she was the first to arrive.

Surprisingly, the second was Queen Bee.

When Ladybug heard footfalls behind her she found herself hoping for hands to land on her shoulders and a familiar purr to bid her good evening. Instead, a figure in yellow dropped to sit beside her, mirroring her position and also hanging her legs over the edge. In the past Queen Bee had been, well, annoying. She was bratty and stuck up. Now, she was still a bit bratty and still stuck up, but Ladybug also knew there was a gentler person behind that first impression, one she usually only saw when they were alone like this.

“Is it a bad thing that… I’m kind of glad it’s not completely over yet?” Queen Bee asked aloud, not bothering with a hello.

“Glad?” Ladybug asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I mean, we weren’t going to stop being heroes… unless that’s what we wanted I suppose, and there’s plenty of non-miraculous crime to fight but” Queen Bee shrugged “I guess I wasn’t ready for it to be over. I know its selfish, but a second chance to kick Hawkmoth’s sorry ass isn’t something I’ll feel bad for.”

Ladybug didn’t reply, because the way Queen Bee phrased it, she found herself almost feeling the same way. Almost. She was torn, remembering Adrien’s reaction earlier to discovering his father’s escape, and also wanting to kick Gabriel’s ass a few times on his son’s behalf.

“Who’s kicking Hawkmoth’s ass, because I think we’d both like a piece of that action” another voice piped up from behind them, and they turned to find Carapace and Rena Rouge had also arrived. They too joined the girls sitting on the edge, though Rena sat with one leg tucked under her and Carapace didn’t dangle his legs at all.

“So, uh…” Carapace cleared his throat, looking at Ladybug “is… will Chat Noir be joining us?”

For a moment there was silence between the heroes, the only sound being the sounds of the city around them still active even at night.

“I don’t know” Ladybug finally confessed, her voice carefully void of any emotion “but we don’t have time to wait for him, this new attack and Gabriel’s escape is our focus. I tried to locate Master Fu after Mayura’s attack, but he’s moved location again. As of now I can’t say for sure that he or the butterfly miraculous are safe, because I don’t know. It’s entirely possible that Gabriel and Mayura will attempt to get the miraculous back. Master Fu probably knows that, and that’s why he’s moved without telling anyone.”

“I’m more worried about Mayura and her Sentimonsters” Rena shuddered “the amoks can be more difficult to spot that the akuma’s where. How did you spot the dog one earlier Ladybug?”

“It was in a kids toy dog, it was just on the street and it seemed to be an odd thing out” Ladybug shrugged “but I guess to anyone else it may have just looked like something dropped when everyone ran away. I don’t know. Maybe it’s my Kwamii able to spot them and that comes out as thinking something is out of place.”

“I wonder if it’ll work like that for the rest of us” Carapace muttered.

“I don’t know, but I think after this it’s time we all joined patrol again full time, and not just sporadically” Queen Bee shot a meaningful look at the fox and turtle, who she knew had been slacking lately. “I’m ready to come back, I can do my usual Monday and Wednesday patrol days.”

“Us too” Rena agreed immediately.

“Alright, so we’ll go back to the usual schedule?” Ladybug asked.

“Who’ll do Chat’s days?” Carapace asked tentatively, watching as once again the hero in red’s expression fell before she schooled it into something blank and unreadable.

“I’ll do it. I don’t mind, I’ve been doing every night since we defeated Hawkmoth.”

“What?!” Rena and Queen Bee gasped, horrified, before asking over the top of each other “why didn’t you call us? We could’ve helped!”

“You deserved a break” Ladybug shrugged.

“So do you, LB” Rena sighed, like she was used to dealing with this sort of stubbornness from someone.

“I didn’t mind” was all she got in reply, and another shrug.

Carapace had watched this entire exchange without taking his eyes off of Ladybug, how her gaze never wavered from the Paris skyline, and her expression never changed from the blank one she put in place when he mentioned her missing partner. “You’ve been looking for Chat” he muttered, his voice almost stolen by the breeze, but still heard by the three girls.

Ladybugs head snapped around to face him, her mouth open in surprise.

Carapace shrugged, almost embarrassed he’d caught her out like that despite her being – in his opinion – very obvious about it, “I mean we get it I guess, you’re literally ying-and-yang. None of us have that bond through our miraculous, never mind you guys where partners waaay longer than the rest of us.”

“Yeah plus you guys were like, totally getting it on behind our backs” Queen Bee snickered, especially when Ladybug nearly slipped from the tower in shock. It was only because the other three grabbed her shoulders that she didn’t fall.

“W-w-what, I, we, I mean- we not – I mean…” Ladybug stuttered over her words, reminding them all very much of someone they knew, until she buried her face in her hands and groaned loudly “oh whatever there’s no point even arguing the fact is there?”

“Nope” Rena cackled, popping the ‘p’ teasingly “it’s nice to know at least one of my ships sails. Also, you guys sucked and hiding it so bad.”

“But we have to ask, do you know if Chat is okay?” Carapace asked, feeling if he didn’t this conversation would fast turn into what his girlfriend referred to as ‘girl talk’ and he didn’t want to be around for it. Girl talk often took a turn into the strange and weird, or at least it did between Aly and Marinette, and he got the funny feeling it would between these three as well.

“I…” Ladybug sighed and lifted her face from her hands “I don’t honestly know. I wasn’t lying when I said I hadn’t seen him since Hawkmoth’s defeat… and not for a lack of looking or calling either. Honestly, I’m starting to wonder if I’ll ever find him. What if he was really hurt during the battle, worse than Carapace’s broken arm I mean? Or what if _he_ doesn’t want to find _me_? Or what if he doesn’t want to be Chat Noir anymore?”

“Wait, don’t you know each other’s civilian identities?” Queen Bee frowned “how could you date if you didn’t know who you actually are?”

Ladybug blushed “no I don’t know his identity… I guess you wouldn’t call it traditional dating. We had to wait until after Hawkmoth was gone, since he wanted the miraculous, you _know_ how dangerous it could be if he discovered our identities.”

They lapsed into silence again, each of them thinking of how bad it could have been had Hawkmoth discovered any of their identities. “I’m sure he’ll come slinking in like the stray he is in no time” Rena eventually broke the silence, standing up “If he doesn’t have a good excuse, I’ll have few choice words about his disappearance myself! I’ll do my usual patrol tomorrow.”

“Okay, I think I hear my bed calling for me too!” Queen Bee jumped up, leaning over the edge of the tower with her hand curled around her hear as though listening. “Can’t look this good without my beauty sleep! That was a not-so-subtle hint for you spots, you don’t need to patrol every night now so get some rest, I can practically see the bags through your mask!”

Ladybug only arched an eyebrow as the yellow hero swooped away from them. But she should take the good advice and she did promise Tikki she wouldn’t be out too late. Snapping her yoyo, she too swung through the city of lights heading for home. 

She didn’t notice the green eyes watching, following, in the dark.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I couldn't sleep after posting chapter three last night, so got most of my edits for this chapter done a lot quicker than I thought I would. Then again that means this chapter was tweaked under the influence of coffee so still may have missed a few mistakes hahaha. 
> 
> I'll get Chapter five up as soon as possible - things are starting to get interesting. 
> 
> Everyone stay safe!!!


	5. Chapter Five

To say the next few days where tense was an understatement. The city of Paris was caught completely off guard by the attack from Mayura, and the citizens where reeling with the news that Gabriel Agreste had escaped and promptly disappeared. It had been the hope of police that, after sustaining injuries from his fall from a building when he was unmasked, Gabriel wouldn’t be able to get very far but thus far the police hadn’t been able to find a trace of him. The city was gripped with a tense sort of fear, the kind you could feel as you walked down the street, because of course the general population didn’t know that Gabriel would need to reclaim the butterfly miraculous before he could become Hawkmoth again – and as far as Marinette knew, the miraculous was still safe with Master Fu.

Adrien was settling in well to living with Nino, though Nino reported to the girls that he couldn’t cook for crap (having had personal chef’s his entire life) and seemed to have an ingrained need to keep the apartment tidy, though he suspected that was also due to his father. With some convincing he’d sent his application to a few local school’s science programmes, under his real name after Alya convinced him not to use an alias. They had even convinced him to go out with them to the bakery for lunch without wearing anything to obscure his identity, and though people did stare and whisper, his friends where there to distract him from it – and the warm welcome from Marinette’s parents, who’d expressed their worry for him, helped too. The looming presence of Tom even seemed to be enough to scare away the one reporter that tried to approach them. Despite all of this, Alya and Nino where not blind to notice that Adrien always seemed to become nervous whenever Marinette wasn’t around.

Alya waited exactly three days before deciding to confront him on it.

“So sunshine, what’s going on between you and Marinette?”

“W-what?” Adrien looked at her, startled, even Nino spat out his drink in surprise. They where hanging out in Nino’s apartment, Alya enjoying her day off from her internship by hanging out with her boyfriend as he chose tracks to play at an upcoming gig he’d been hired to preform for – Adrien had until this point been staring out of the window with a dower expression, not something he’d have done before all this happened or if Marinette was around.

“I’m talking about how whenever Marinette isn’t around your wound up tighter than an eight-day clock” Alya’s tone was light, amused, but her expression was anything but. He knew the look in her eyes, and had enough sense to know she was asking this out of concern.

“I just… like when she’s around. She’s my friend” his answer sounded lame even to himself, and he grimaced when the fiery red head raised an eyebrow in response.

“Look, I don’t want to get in the way of things because I ship this like I ship Bert and Ernie, but don’t you dare go hurting my girl to make yourself feel better Agreste, you hear me? If you like Marinette as more than a friend, then fine, but If you don’t… don’t act like you do. Even if she says she hasn’t felt like that for you since school, I don’t want her to get hurt again.”

Adrien said nothing, his brain panicking to find a reply that might appease her, and getting no help when he glanced in Nino’s direction and got nothing but a shrug in return – clearly, he’d decided to keep out of this. “I don’t want, or intend, to hurt Marinette” Adrien assured, even as his stomach sank knowing that technically he already was hurting her by avoiding her as Chat Noir. If Alya ever found out, she’d no doubt skin him alive.

She gave him a hard stare for a few minutes longer, before finally shrugging “that’s all I can ask, but know that if you do hurt her its me you’ll be answering to, you hear?”

Adrien’s eyes widened and she nodded, he understood her threat and it did terrify him ever so slightly.

“So, that was tense” Nino broke the silence after a few moments, elbowing the blonde in the ribs until he smiled slightly “where is Marinette anyway?”

“She was working in the bakery this morning, then I think she said she had a doctor’s appointment…” Alya looked at her phone, frowning at the time “but she should’ve been back by now.”

“You know Mari, she’s probably been inspired by something and lost track of time designing something incredible” Nino laughed, but his voice was full of fondness that made the other two smile as well.

Alya’s phone chimed and she looked at it, laughing “oh, speak of the devil and she will text…” her voice trailing off, and smile fading as she read the text.

“Al, everything okay?” Nino asked, Adrien leaning forward as he noticed her expression as well.

“Yeah” Alya bit her lip “yeah, I just got to go. Girl stuff.”

“Girl stuff?” Nino frowned.

“Yeah, girl stuff” she gave him no further information, shrugging on her jacket “probably don’t expect us back here tonight guys.”

“Wait, is something wrong with Marinette, is she hurt?” Adrien called out, standing up before she could leave.

The red head chewed her lip, then answered honestly “I don’t know. She just used our code word for an emergency girl night. Could be anything to ‘I’m-stressed-and-need-wine’ to ‘bad-breakup’. I’ll let you know how bad it is when I get there.”

“Are you sure I should come-?”

“What didn’t you hear about ‘girls’ night’ sunshine?” Alya laughed, reaching up on her tip toes to ruffle his hair playfully “I’ll take good care of whatever is bothering her, don’t you worry.”

“…fine” he pouted, sitting back down to stare balefully out of the window again.

Alya tried not to laugh as she closed Nino’s front door behind her.

A moment of silence passed after she’d left, before Nino cleared his throat and asked “so… bro. Marinette?”

Adrien sighed “it’s complicated.”

“Alright, fine” Nino glanced over, but Adrien hadn’t budged a muscle “but If you need to talk, dude, I’ll always lend an ear.”

“I know… thanks Nino, I appreciated it.”

“Anytime. So, listen to this and tell me what you think yeah?”

****

Alya wasn’t sure what kind of emergency Marinette was having, but she knew it was bad. They had a code for as long as they had been best friends, if one of them said the code then the other knew that a girl’s night was in order. They based the severity of the code on the traffic light system. Code Green was something mild, Code Yellow was a bit more serious, and Code Red was as bad as it could be. Marinette had text her ‘Code Red’, something bad. So, before she came home Alya stopped by the store and bought a bottle of wine and two tubs of their favourite ice cream each.

“Mari?” she called out as she entered their apartment, kicking the door closed behind her “you said Code Red right, so I came prepared!”

Alya stopped when she saw Mari on the sofa. She was curled in a ball, her knees pulled up to her chest, with a blanket around her shoulders. When she looked up her normally sparkling blue eyes where red and wet, tear streaks running down her face. Alya put the ice cream down and dropped to give her a hug.

“What’s wrong Mari?” she asked gently, squeezing her “is it a guy? Do I need to kill someone?”

“No” Marinette sniffled, laying her head on Alya’s shoulder “worse.”

“Worse?” Alya thought “what’s… what’s wrong Marinette, your starting to scare me a little, what happened?”

“I went to see the doctor again… they got the results of my tests…”

Alya felt her stomach drop “oh no… your… are you sick Mari? Is it something serious?”

“No” Mari sat up from her shoulder, drawing her knees up to her chest again “I’m… I’m pregnant.”

Alya froze.

“Did… did you just say ‘pregnant’?”

“Y-yeah” Marinette sniffed, rubbing her eyes to try and stop anymore tears from falling.

“I… I… what… how…. When did you even… what?” Alya took a breath, running a hand through her hair “I don’t get it, when did you even sleep with a guy for this to happen?”

Marinette swallowed. She’d called Alya over because she had needed her best friend after getting out of the doctor’s office (and wandering around in a sort of shocked dazed before this diagnosis had really hit home) and knew she’d ask this. “I… I’ve been, or I was, seeing someone… we only did it _once_ … but I guess that was enough.”

“And you didn’t tell me?!” Alya accused teasingly, trying to get her friend to smile.

Marinette just shifted uncomfortably “I wanted to but… we never discussed what it was between us. And now he’s had to go away for a while and I don’t know if he’ll ever even come back!” she wailed, tears beginning to fall again.

“Oh, no” Alya hugged her again, stroking her hair “don’t cry Mari, we’ll sort this out. Forget the guy for now.”

It took a few minutes for Mari to get a hold of herself again, hiccupping a little “thanks Alya…”

“It’s no problem, im here for you” Alya assured, standing up “now, I brought your favourite ice cream, I say we eat that and whatever other snacks we have and… well I bought wine too, but I guess you cant really drink that now can you?”

Marinette shook her head with a watery smile, somehow feeling a little better at the light-hearted teasing. She accepted the tub of ice-cream and spoon from Alya as she got back on the couch with her, turning on Netflix to stream a movie as she told Marinette what she’d missed earlier in the day when they where hanging out at Nino’s. Marinette laughed when she heard Adrien had been bugging Nino after he found a bunch of cat sound-features and started playing them randomly while Nino was trying to pick out tracks for his set.

Alya only brought up the pregnancy again when Mari had relaxed a bit.

“So… what did the doctor say, yknow about…?”

Mari licked the ice-cream spoon and glanced at her uncomfortably “he said it was probably why I was getting dizzy and feeling so tired. Not to mention the nausea. They gave me some tablets that should help, and some vitamins to keep me and the baby healthy.”

“Does that mean your going to keep it?”

“I think so… the doctor was really nice about it; she explained a lot of options to me but…” Mari shrugged.

“Well, you’ve got me no matter what you decide – though, fun aunt Alya does have a nice right to it don’t you think?”

“Crazy aunt Alya more like” Mari stuck her tongue out.

“I won’t deny that either” Alya laughed loudly “so, do you mind if I ask about your secret lover?”

Marinette’s expression became guarded, “depends what your going to ask?”

“I was just going to straight out ask who he is, but I’m guessing you wont answer?”

“Nope” Mari shook her head “I… it’s not that I don’t trust you, and I’m not saying its someone we know, but I don’t want to risk him finding out from anyone but me.”

“Alright” Alya nodded, though she guessed it was probably someone she also knew – she couldn’t think of another reason why Mari would worry that the father would find out from her. “Can you at least tell me, was he serious about you? This wasn’t just a fling for him was it?”

Mari’s gaze softened “I don’t think so… we’ve been seeing each other in secret for quite a while. Honestly, he pursued me for a long time before I realised that after year of denying it… I felt the same way about him.”

Alya almost squealed at the lovestruck expression on her friends face but didn’t want to ruin the moment and settled on a giddy grin “aww. Was he cute?”

Marinette laughed “yes… but never, ever tell him I said that! If his head gets any bigger, he won’t be able to walk!”

“What’s he look like?”

“Alya” Mari snickered “I’m not tell you so you can guess who he is!”

“I wasn’t trying to guess, c’mon Mari, just one detail? How am I supposed to daydream about what your future baby looks like without know what the baby-daddy looks like?”

Marinette threw one of the cushions at Alya, laughing loudly now. “Don’t call him that, and fine… He’s blonde, I think.”

“You think?”

“He might not be naturally blonde” Mari supplied with a shrug. It was true, she didn’t know if Chat’s miraculous changed the colour of his hair – it was entirely possible.

“Hmm” Alya sat back thoughtfully “so you have a type then. Cute blondes.”

“Sorry?”

“Well, first Adrien and now this mystery guy – cute blondes are totally your type Mari.”

“I’m… saying nothing, to protect my integrity.”

The two young women fell about laughing, until their cheeks hurt and the chime from Alya’s phone notified her of an incoming message. Wiping tears from her eyes, she looked at the screen.

“Oh, it’s just Nino. I forgot to message them when I got here” Alya was still giggling, though she was trying to sound a bit more serious “I was with him when I got your code red, I had to explain to Adrien he couldn’t come to an emergency girls night.”

“Please don’t tell them about… about all this, not yet” Mari sobered her laughter quickly “I mean I don’t want to ask you lie to Nino but… I’m just not ready. I still need to really wrap my head around it.”

“Girl, you don’t even need to ask me. What Nino doesn’t know won’t hurt him, besides I think in this case he’ll understand. I’ll just tell them it was a ‘female emergency’ that usually stops guys asking too many questions, at least in my experience.”

****

Nino’s phone chimed with Alya’s reply to his earlier text asking if Marinette was doing okay. Honestly, he’d normally have given the girls their space and waited until the next day to ask but Aidren was driving him crazy.

“See” he showed his phone to the blonde who was well on the way to pacing a new Grand Canyon into the carpet “Alya says she’s fine, just a ‘female emergency’. Stop pacing dude.”

Adrien glanced at the phone once. “What does ‘female emergency’ even mean though? That could be anything!”

Nino snorted, not taking his eyes off his computer “in my experience bro, its usually code for the girls don’t want to tell you what the problem is and hope you’ll get grossed out by the idea of a female issue. Your going to have to drop it, if they don’t want to tell us we can’t make them.”

Adrien sighed, frustrated, knowing Nino was completely right. He just knew in his gut that something was going on, then again, he could just be worrying for nothing like Nino had said a hundred times since Alya had left. “I think I’m gonna go to bed.”

“Right” Nino didn’t sound like he believed him “I might get this set list finished by dawn, maybe. I’ll see you in the morning bro.”

“Yeah, goodnight Nino” Adrien waved, heading into the spare room that was now his bedroom. It wasn’t huge, but it was a decent enough size, with a single bed and a few other pieces of necessary furniture like drawers, lamp and wardrobe. Adrien shut the door behind him and threw himself down on the bed without undressing, heaving another huge sigh.

“What’s up kid?” Plagg asked from on top of the wardrobe where he’d been resting – transforming and using cataclysm the other day had really drained the cat kwamii’s energy, but Adrien was relived to noticed that he seemed to be recovering faster these days, especially compared with a month ago.

“I was just thinking about Marinette.”

“You mean your girlfriend?” Plagg snickered.

Adrien threw him a glare, but this time didn’t argue. “I’m worried, she’s not been acting like herself – I just thought it was because, well, because Chat Noir was missing. And then Mayura’s attack, and my father’s escape! She asked Alya to come over tonight without me or Nino. I can’t shake the feeling that somethings wrong and she’s hiding it from me.”

Because he wasn’t looking at him, Adrien didn’t notice when Plagg rolled his eyes “Oh really? I wonder what she could _possibly_ be hiding from you kid.”

“I don’t know” Adrien sat up again, rubbing a hand across his face “Alya did say she had another doctor’s appointment today, what if she’s sick?”

“Yeah, I’m sure that’s what it is” Plagg deadpanned “ _sick_. Riiight.”

Adrien noticed the odd tone in the little god’s voice and threw him a funny look “do you know something?”

“Me? What could I possibly know?”

“Hmmm” Adrien regarded him suspiciously, folding his arms over his chest, but kind of agreed with him. After all, unless he was hanging out here in his bedroom Plagg usually tended to be where Adrien was, how would Plagg know something about Marinette that Adrien didn’t know himself?

“I will tell you something I do know though” Plagg grinned, leaning forward.

“Yeah?”

“You make things needlessly complicated.”

“Shut up and eat your cheese.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What's this, two chapters in one day? :O 
> 
> well, aside from work I'm in lockdown just like everyone else. Plus most of the chapters for this story are already written and just need tweaking - but I didn't find a lot in this chapter I wanted to change. 
> 
> Anyway, hope you enjoy, and to everyone else in lockdown/isolation - stay safe, stay sane.


	6. Chapter six

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologise for the slow update, but geesh you do not want to be working in a hospital during a pandemic trust me!
> 
> As such, this may feel like a short filler style chapter, but only because I had to get it written on my breaks this week. I've been so tired I pretty much drop when i get home. Hopefully things will get smoother in the coming weeks as they figure out what to do with our department that's somehow not needed for the pandemic yet busier than ever (i dont get it, really)
> 
> I apologise for any grammatical or spelling errors, computers at work dont have the best system because we dont 'need' it.

The day after her doctor’s appointment Marinette didn’t really feel like getting out of bed. Tikki, for once, didn’t encourage her to do it either – the kwami actually sat on her pillow, one paw rubbing Marinette’s forehead comfortingly, and holding a cookie with the other as they talked.

Sure, talking to Alya the night before had really helped Marinette’s wracked nerves to settle, but she still didn’t feel like her head was wrapped around the idea that she was pregnant. It was like she was dreaming, or just watching someone else’s life on TV. Beyond her windows the rest of the world continued at a blurred pace, but in her bedroom it felt like time stood still. Talking to Tikki helped her mind really come to terms with the fact she had another life growing inside her, though if she was honest it still felt surreal.

Battling magically transformed super-beings with a yoyo in a skin-tight ladybug outfit with your leather-clad cat boyfriend? Easy.

Pregnancy? No, she couldn’t get her head around that one.

Alya was a great support. She only left the apartment to go with Nino to get his cast off at the hospital, but other than that she didn’t leave Marinette’s side for three days straight. The boys noticed of course, but both girls deflected their questions and turned down their invited to hang out. Marinette just told them she wasn’t feeling very well, and Alya repeated the excuse despite knowing neither Nino or Adrien actually believed it. But despite the boys questions the red head remained firm and wouldn’t spill any of her best friend’s secrets.

The behaviour was driving Adrien insane. Alya told them Marinette wasn’t feeling very well and she needed to stay with her to look after her, and had banned them from their apartment so they wouldn’t catch whatever bug Marinette had. This didn’t sit well with his gut though, something more was wrong he was sure. A few times, in the early hours of the morning, he snuck out as Chat Noir to check on her. He didn’t know why this urge was so strong, much stronger than usual, but like a man starved of air he just needed to see her and make sure she was okay. She was safe. Of course Plagg wasn’t too amused he was being woken up so late to hang out on the fire escape outside of Marinette’s bedroom window, but despite his sarcastic comments to just ask the girl what was wrong he didn’t do anything to discourage the behaviour – choosing the accept it with a sigh, something that surprised Adrien.

In the middle of all this was Nino, who had threatened multiple times to throw Adrien into the seine if he didn’t stop stressing over Marinette – often teasing him for the not so subtle, though very sudden, crush. He was worried whatever sickness Mari had was serious, sure, he knew she’d been feeling sick for a few weeks now but he also trusted that the girls would tell him in their own time if it was a serious matter.

By Sunday night, three days after she had seen the doctor, Marinette felt good enough in herself to walk to the bakery and tell her parents. Alya wanted to go with her, for support, but she told her no. After all, her parents knew she was Ladybug and that the missing father of her future child was Chat Noir… her parents could offer her the kind of advice and comfort that Alya couldn’t. So while Alya took the afternoon to go on a much needed date with her boyfriend, Marinette headed to the bakery alone – unaware of being followed at a distance.

Her parents actually took the news better than she expected. Marinette had been fretting all morning (and getting on Alya’s nerves with her worried ranting) to the point where she’d written down two plans regarding her pregnancy and future child – one where Chat eventually returned and one in case she became a single parent. She didn’t like to think about it, she felt she now had no choice but to think about a future without Chat at her side. It hurt, but Tikki reminded her that she needed to think for two lives now, though she also encouraged her not to give up hope that Chat would come back. She had tried again to get into contact with Chat through her yoyo hoping his kwami would tell him she was trying to contact him, but got nothing in return.

Her parents were just as supportive as she knew they would be, and though her father did express a little annoyance regarding Chat ‘knocking up his daughter then disappearing’ they seemed to share Tikki’s view that she shouldn’t give up hope just yet – but that planning to do this without him would be a mature thing to do. They even offered to let her move back in with them, into her old room, if she wished but Marinette declined. She loved living with Alya – and Alya was already excited to become ‘the most awesome aunt ever’ and had been showing her all kinds of cute and fun baby clothes from her favourite baby blogs – she’d become embarrassed when Mari asked why she followed baby blogs though, eventually admitting that she sometimes fantasied about her future kids with Nino. Her parents did ask about her future as Ladybug, expressing concern about her fighting criminals or magical supervillains while expecting, and though Tikki assured everyone that Marinette and the baby would be very well protected by the magic of the transformation, Mari did admit she’d eventually have to take a break as Ladybug.

That was a conversation she’d need to have with the other miraculous holders eventually, and one she was pondering about when she left the bakery. Until she was sure Chat wasn’t returning if felt wrong of her to tell the other heroes of her pregnancy before him. Not only that, but if Mayura made another attack (things had felt eerily quiet after Gabriel’s escape, and though she hoped that was all Mayura wanted her gut said that whatever had started with the amok hadn’t finished yet) Ladybug was the only one who could purify the amok. She’d discussed this with Tikki, who explained that when this situation had happened in the past with previous Ladybugs then the other miraculous holders would simply have to catch the amok and bring it to her to be purified – which would be easier if the other holders knew who Ladybug was under the mask…

She was so wrapped up in in her thoughts she walked right into the chest of someone trying to get her attention. Wobbling on her feet only a little as she gasped with surprise, strong hands landed on her arms to steady her. Looking up she half expected blonde hair and green eyes, but instead was met with blue hair and blue eyes.

“Luka?” she squealed, throwing her arms around his neck.

“Hey Mari” he chuckled, returning the hug with a squeeze “I did try to get your attention before you walked right into me, but your head seemed in the clouds.”

“Mm, maybe” Mari let go of him, shrugging nonchalantly “how are you Luks? Last I heard your band was touring?!”

“Yeah, yeah we are. But back in Paris for a few weeks, nothing like your home turf for a much needed rest” Luka grinned “I hope you don’t mind my asking, but it looks like the weather is about to take a turn. Do you want to grab a coffee and catch up?” he pointed to a coffee shop on their left that they could duck into, just as Mari became aware of the ominous grey clouds rolling above – the first drops of rain beginning to fall around them.

Marinette hesitated slightly, but was swayed when thunder rolled over head and walked ahead of Luka into the coffee shop. They chatted amicably in the line for their drinks, Luka insisting on paying for both her soda and a few macarons to share, before they took a seat at a table by the window – watching as the storm really started, rain pelting down unforgivingly.

“So, how have you been Marinette?” Luka asked once they were seated “you look fantastic, another design of yours?”

Mari plucked at the jumper-dress she was wearing wither her fingers and shrugged “a first draft, I’ll probably change it at some point. I feel like this dress could have more, but I like the simple design too. And I’ve been good, still studying and running a shop on the Ladyblog with Alya.”

“That’s great, honestly I’ve bought a few pieces from the blog myself” he laughed, winking over his coffee.

They chatted a bit longer as they had their drinks and shared the macarons. Marinette enjoyed herself, feeling that for the first time in days she wasn’t worrying about Chat, amoks or a future baby. Luka had always been easy to talk to, and one of her closest friends. He had made his feelings for her known a few years ago, after she’d gotten over her horrendous crush on Adrien, and though they had gone on a few dates… Marinette had just never felt that spark with him. If she was honest with herself she’d describe him as too safe, and that wasn’t something she found herself attracted to. With Luka she could imagine feeling safe, secure, she’d never have to worry or want for anything because he’d treat her like a queen… but she’d be bored. Around the time she was dating Luka, she’d found her attention instead stuck of her leather-clad pun loving partner. She didn’t know his real face, or his real name, in fact she didn’t know if anything she knew about his life was true but she was never bored and never felt unloved. In the end, she would rather be his Lady than a queen.

Luka had taken it well when she’d broken things off with him though, telling him at the time that she just wanted to focus on her studies, probably because he was about to start touring with his band and would be travelling a lot. It left him free to do that, which she guessed probably relived him a little. But he’d promised his feelings for her where still as strong as ever – something Marinette had hoped was no longer true, until he reached across the table to take her hand in his.

“Luka?” she queried, meeting his soft gaze, but not pulling her hand away just yet. She didn’t want to seem unfriendly, she really had missed him when he was gone.

“Mari” he smiled gently “I know we broke up because we both had other commitments, and I’m only back in the city for a few weeks but… I was hoping we might be able to get dinner sometime?”

“Um…” Marinette smiled politely, feeling her brain scramble for a reasonable answer. “I mean sure, as friends, maybe we could invite Alya and Nino, oh and Adrien just moved in with Nino so-“

“-Marinette, I meant a date” Luka cut her off with a sigh, leaning back and letting her hand go.

“Oh.”

He smiled, but it wasn’t a happy one. “You don’t have to pretend with me Mari, you knew what I was asking and just didn’t want to say ‘no’ outright. It’s okay though, I know we’re still in different places… perhaps when I come back permanently, we can rekindle something between us?”

A part of her wanted to say yes, the part that didn’t want to see Luka hurt, but she knew in the end that it would only lead to more later. Sighing, and pulling her hand back towards her chest, Mari chewed on her lip. “I… Luka, I don’t think that will happen. I don’t want to hurt you, but I know being honest with you is best even if it hurts. I just don’t like you that way. I’m sorry.”

For a moment Luka said nothing, just staring at her with that unhappy-smile, before he chuckled and took a sip of his coffee, finally turning to look out of the window instead of at her. “Just… tell me it’s not because you’re still hung up on Adrien?” he asked, his voice almost sounding strained “I don’t mean to talk bad about him, he’s still my friend too, but you could do so much better Marinette.”

Mari felt herself prickle with annoyance “not that it’s any of your business, but no it’s not because I still like Adrien – which I don’t! Besides, who I choose to love isn’t anyone’s business but my own no matter how worthy someone else thinks they are or aren’t.”

Luka nodded, but still didn’t look happy “I heard Adrien was back in town from my sister, honestly I had hoped he wasn’t hanging around you again but –“

He continued, but Marinette found herself not listening as annoyance made her grit her teeth. She’d never seen Luka… jealous before. She supposed she could understand his frustration, considering he’d been around during her embarrassingly obsessive crush on Adrien before, but at the same time it shouldn’t matter to him who she had feelings for or not.

In the end, she decided to cut him off firmly with the hard truth. “Luka. I’m not interested in you, and it has nothing to do with Adrien. If you must know, you’re just not what I’m looking for in a partner and considering I’m pregnant with another man’s child I don’t feel it would be appropriate to pursue anything with you even if I did have feelings for you. Which I don’t.”

Luka whipped his head around and gaped at her. Marinette took a sip of her soda, arms folded over her chest, still annoyed with his earlier criticising of Adrien.

“You’re… pregnant?” he asked, eyes flicking briefly down to her stomach that was hidden under the table.

“Yup” she said with a bit of bite, popping her tongue on the ‘p’.

He stared at her a bit more, obviously shocked, and she took more sips of her soda. Eventually he asked “I-uh- congratulations I guess. Or is it? I mean are you happy or…?”

“I’ve not known long… but I think I am” she responded with small smile, realising it was the truth.

“I… wow. Just wow. Does anyone else know?”

“Just you, Alya, and my parents. And I need you to keep it under you hat, I only told you because I trust you as my friend Luka. Even with what you were saying earlier about Adrien which was quite hurtful actually” she fixed him with a stern glare, and from the look on his face knew he’d keep her secret.

“I’m sorry Mari” he apologised earnestly “I shouldn’t have let my jealously get the better of me. Both you and Adrien are my friends but… I guess it hurt a bit more than I realised to be absolutely in love with you, but want you love him instead.”

“I understand” she smiled, accepting his apology “but you shouldn’t focus all your emotions on me. There’s someone out there for you, I know it.”

“Thanks Marinette, but I doubt I’ll find anyone as great as you” he winked, grinning, and sipped his coffee again. “So… you haven’t told the father yet?”

“Not yet… trying to find the perfect way” she lied, looking firmly at her soda. After his earlier outburst she didn’t want to encourage Luka to think the father wasn’t in the picture.

“What about filling his apartment with baby balloons to surprise him?” Luka suggested, tapping his chin thoughtfully “or having a sing-o-gram sent to him, I could offer a cheap price with my band!”

Marinette laughed at his suggestions, even throwing a few playful ideas of her own into the mix, for another half an hour before the storm let up and they said goodbye again.


	7. Chapter Seven

Nino looked up from his laptop when he heard the door slam, and raised his eyebrow at the very wet Adrien Agreste trudging into their apartment, hands deep in his pockets and a scowl on his normally perfect face. He chose to say nothing at first, waiting until Adrien had made himself a coffee and sat on the armchair near the window, apparently content to scowl at the rain as the thunderstorm outside raged.

“Bad day?” Nino asked lightly, trying not to laugh when Adrien turned to face him so quickly that some of his sodden hair – longer now that he wasn’t constantly harassed by his father’s stylist – flicked rainwater everywhere.

“Huh?” Adrien’s scowl deepened, if that was possible. “No… just got caught in the rain.”

“Yeah, normal people usually get changed when they’re mad about getting wet in the rain” Nino snorted “where did you go anyway, I thought you only popped out to get some milk?”

“I… uh…” Adrien floundered momentarily for an answer, but in the end, he let out a frustrated groan and looked away as he admitted “I saw Marinette having coffee with Luka.” He wisely left out the part where he’d actually followed her to the bakery, and then seen her go with Luka for coffee, since Nino probably wouldn’t approve of his stalking of one of his oldest friends.

“Oh” Nino was surprised, both at the fact Adrien admitted what was bothering him so easily and that the news itself. “I didn’t know Luka was back in town again, last I heard the band was still touring…”

“Well, he’s back.”

“…and Marinette having coffee with him bothers you?” Nino grinned “dude, you’re jealous!”

“No, I’m not!” Adrien protested unconvincingly, knowing that Nino was right but unable to give his best friend an explanation for that jealousy “I just… I don’t know.”

Nino was still grinned “bro, just ask her out. Worst case she says no, but your both too nice to stop being friends over that.”

“Um…” Adrien felt like his brain was going to break, mostly because he was desperate not to blurt out to Nino about his and Marinette’s secret relationship as their alter ego’s Chat and Ladybug, and floundering with his words to navigate the verbal minefield.

Nino took his hesitation for shyness however and gave him an encouraging thumbs up “trust me, she’ll probably say yes. Do not tell her I told you this because my life utterly depends on it, but Alya reckons Mari never really got over that crush she had on you. Though now that I think about it that just might be because she’s determined to get you guys together…”

Adrien just stared at him as he trailed off thoughtfully, trying to work through the internal feelings of being jealous that while Mari, as Ladybug, was dating him as Chat, she might still have had a small crush on him, as Adrien, and somehow finding himself getting jealous… over himself. He had to shake his head to get his head back on track, and decided to switch topics. “What are your plans for tonight?”

“Date night, Alya’s been dropping not to subtle hints about that new ice-cream parlour that’s open late. I’m going to take her to a movie and surprise her with ice-cream after” he wiggled his eyebrows, extremely proud of his plan, before adding slyly “why don’t you and Mari come with us?”

Adrien couldn’t help but chuckle and wondered if when Marinette had to deal with such obvious attempts at a double date when she’d had her crush on him. “Sorry, but I have to go and visit an old friend about a job. I just asked because I wasn’t sure what time I’d get back.”

“Oh? What, is it a modelling job?” Nino asked in surprise – until now Adrien had not made any firm decisions on what to do about his future as a model. It wasn’t like he needed the money, he had quite a hefty amount in his personal accounts, not to mention the accounts he’d gotten legal custody over when his father was arrested.

“No, just a side thing I… cant really talk about it much” Adrien shrugged, hoping Nino would drop it – after all, there had been numerous things in the past that he’d not been allowed to talk to his friend about, normally relating to his fathers company.

“Ah, something to do with the company?” Nino nodded slowly “figured you’d probably have to deal with that now… though, aren’t they worried about if your dad reappears again now he’s escaped jail?”

Adrien stiffened at the mention of his fathers escape, but tried to keep his voice level “no, even if he did everything to do with the company has been transferred to me. Though, I mostly let Nathalie take care of things, she has more experience there than I do yet.”

Nino nodded, then turned his attention back to his laptop – occasionally playing a bit of music for Adrien’s opinion on it. On the chair opposite, Adrien sat mostly in silence waiting for dark. He’d agreed to see Master Fu on this date after dark weeks ago, so the guardian could check on Plagg’s progress. In his opinion his Kwami was acting almost like normal again, but he’d feel more comfortable with Master Fu’s advice. While he waited, his mind wandered back to Marinette again.

It was only chance he’d spotted her leaving her apartment earlier as he was leaving hers. He’d raised a hand to wave hello, but she’d obviously been preoccupied and hadn’t even noticed. Was it slightly creepy that he’d decided to follow her after that? Probably, but he couldn’t shake the need to do it either. It was like a magnetic pull, a gut feeling, something was off about her and he felt driven to protect her. This urge wasn’t helped when Plagg told him that Ladybug had been trying to contact Chat Noir a few times – Adrien had been so irritated with Plagg for not telling him sooner, but the cantankerous little god had only pointed out that Adrien would only fret over the calls and not answer them, then spend all his time fretting over it. He wished he could’ve said that Plagg was wrong but… he couldn’t. After this long, he knew that when he came back to Ladybug he would have to do so in person. She as owed that after all, and so much more.

Besides, what if after all this time she was starting to move on? Adrien had felt like there was a lead ball in his stomach ever since he’d seen Luka holding her hand through the coffee shop window. He’d had to walk away when he saw that, afraid that he might storm in there and demand the blue haired musician stay the hell away from his lady – he didn’t want to be that guy. And he didn’t want to be jealous of his friend Luka either. But he couldn’t help worrying, what if after all this time she was giving up? Moving on from Chat? He wouldn’t blame her, though he hoped with all his heart it wasn’t true, he couldn’t help but wonder if that wasn’t for the best once she found out who he really was…

The conflicting feelings made him feel sick, so the second it was dark enough Adrien said goodbye to Nino and took off. He transformed into Chat Noir in an alley a few streets away, and made his way to Master Fu’s new home, sticking to the darkest shadows where not even the keenest eyes of Paris would spot him.

Master Fu used to work out of a small tea shop not far from the Dupain-Cheng bakery. After the defeat of Hawkmoth, when Adrien had come to him broken and terrified with an injured Plagg, he’d decided to move once Ladybug had returned the Butterfly miraculous to him. Adrien hadn’t been in the right frame of mind to wonder why he’d do that at the time, but now he couldn’t help wondering if the master had suspected retaliation from Mayura would come eventually.

Chat Noir leapt across the last gap between rooftops before reaching the new home of Master Fu. He had to admit, it’s not someplace he would ever think to look for a miraculous guardian, but then again where would he look if he was ever looking for one? Rather than a shop again, this time he had settled into a detached two-story home a little outside of the inner-city limits. Though he’d mentioned that he’d miss running his shops, Master Fu had somehow joined a local book club that was run by the mothers on the street where he was slowly introducing them to the art of ancient teas. All of the houses on the street looked identical, but Chat Noir had visited Master Fu so often when Plagg was sick that he knew which one it was – and he found it odd that the lights where off, when he was sure Master Fu should have been waiting for him.

He briefly wondered if he’d gotten the day wrong, but he was sure – and so was Plagg when they left – besides, Master Fu wouldn’t mind if he got it wrong and dropped in anyway. Looking down on the street to make sure no one was looking, Chat Noir jumped down from the rooftop, into the branches of the tree on the street, and opened the second-floor window of Master Fu’s home.

The second his boots hit the carpeted floor; Chat felt like something was off with the house – though nothing about the mostly empty spare room indicated that anything was wrong. His ears laid back into his blonde hair and his leather belt-tail lashed behind him anxiously, moving forward on surprisingly silent steps, he crept along the second floor – checking the other rooms with open doors as he went.

Downstairs it was another story. Chat only had to get halfway down the staircase before he saw the chaos. Master Fu’s normally immaculate sitting room was now a mess of overturned furniture, decorated with the scattered innards of cushions that where torn open in someone’s desperate search for something. Even the wallpaper on the wall was torn away, in a single large gash. Chat continued to creep amongst the mess, investigating, tail twitching as he fought the urge to call out for Master Fu knowing it was very unlikely that he was still there after whatever had happened.

His ring began to beep, and guessing that was Plagg’s way of letting him know he needed to speak, he dropped his transformation and released the chaotic feline from the ring.

“Master Fu isn’t here” was the first thing he said, floating around the room.

“I guessed” Adrien snorted, but not in a mean way – he’d known Plagg long enough now to know when he was worried, and from the way he was twitching his whiskers and tail, he was worried now. “I hope he’s okay, any idea where he would have gone?”

“Depends on what happened. One way we’ll know if he’s okay – check if the miraculous box is still safe.”

Adrien nodded, knowing that Plagg was right – if Master Fu was in any able shape, his first priority would have been to keep the other miraculous’ safe from harm. If he wasn’t and the box was still gone? Adrien didn’t really want to think of what insanity that could cause…

Master Fu kept the megaphone that hid the miraculous box in the hallway. He said keeping it in one of the rooms may have drawn attention to it, but keeping it out of sight so carelessly as though it was unimportant wouldn’t bring anyone’s attention to the old antique. when he saw the megaphone lying on its side, one of its legs broken, Adrien felt his heart sink – but he checked anyway and sighed audibly with relief when he pulled out the intact miraculous box.

“It’s safe Plagg” he said, stuffing the box inside his hoodie.

Plagg settled on his shoulder solemnly “yeah… but that probably means Master Fu isn’t. He wouldn’t just leave them here after… whatever this was.”

Adrien looked at him and said as comfortingly as he could “don’t worry, we’ll find him.”

“I’m not worried, I’m… concerned.”

Adrien decided to keep the peace and not to point out to him that it was pretty much the same thing.

****

Marinette was in the bathroom when she heard Alya getting home the next morning. She’d been alone – aside from Tikki – until then, so she had left the bathroom door open in her hurry to get there, meaning Alya got a full view of a very dishevelled, irritated, looking Marintte sitting on the bathroom floor near the toilet.

Wrinkling her nose as she poked her nose further into the bathroom, Alya asked “morning sickness?”

“Morning, afternoon, middle of the damn night…” Marinette groaned, leaning her head back against the cool tile wall “I swear, it got worse after I found out.”

“Mmm, probably a bit psychological then. Do you want breakfast?” she asked, extending her hand out to the girl on the floor.

“Just tea” Mari requested weakly, accepting Alya’s offered hand to pull herself up off the floor. “So, how was your date?”

“Nino got my hints; we went to a movie and then that new late-night ice cream parlour. It was to die for, as I suspected. I took like a hundred pictures, for my food blog, so that’s something to do this afternoon” Alya giggled “and then we went back to his place and Adrien wasn’t home soooo…”

“Stop, I don’t need the intimate details” Mari snickered, leaning on the kitchen counter.

“Oh, don’t worry, we used protection, so we won’t be baby-buddies quite yet!” Alya elbowed her in the ribs good naturedly, winking. “Besides, honestly, I don’t think I could even handle the thought of being a mom myself just yet – It feels like I only just escaped my siblings. Your way braver than me girl.”

“Yeah, but I don’t have siblings to put me off. Just Manon, and I loved every bit of taking care of her” Mari pointed out, trying not to feel like her child-care skills where wholly inadequate as she did, before switching the topic “so is that all you did?”

“What do you mean is that all we did, movie, ice-cream and sex is a damn good date night” Alya acted offended, raising a hand to her chest, but her tone was amused. “Why, what exciting things did you do all night?”

‘ _Patrolled the streets of Paris, scared a would-be-mugger, and sat on the Eiffel tower’s top deck contemplating my life choices’_ was what Marinette thought to say, but instead she shrugged and said “ate a whole tub of Neapolitan ice-cream and binged Netflix.”

Alya laughed, handing her a cup of tea. “Still sounds like a good night” she eyed the bluenette slyly and asked, “Nino thought Adrien might have come over when he still wasn’t home this morning?”

Marinette blinked “no, I haven’t seen Adrien in a few days actually.”

At this Alya frowned “really? Because he told Nino about your coffee date with Luka before I could.”

“Huh… do you think he saw us and left or something?” Mari pondered “maybe he thought he’d be disturbing us.”

“Or maybe he was jealous Luka got to buy you coffee.”

“Yeah, right” Mari rolled her eyes at Alya’s teasing “Adrien has bought me plenty of coffee over the years, nothing to be jealous over.”

Alya tutted loudly, saying just as her phone began to ring loudly in her pocket “I hate when my ships refuse to sail.”

Mari sipped on her tea and left the kitchen while Alya answered her phone. She found it odd that Adrien would have seen her and Luka, but not come to say hello or anything. They where both his friends after all. Then again, considering the topic of her conversation with Luka perhaps it was best he’d stayed away. She’d told Alya all about it, and though she’d been annoyed with Luka both girls could kind of understand where his jealousy was coming from – though Marinette couldn’t help thinking that it was past time for Luka to have moved on from his feelings for her, then again it wasn’t her place to decide what someone else should do with their feelings. She just hoped he wasn’t too hurt by all this.

“Psst” a small voice hissed, drawing her attention to her bedroom door “Marinette!” she knew it was Tikki trying to catch her attention without alerting Alya, though when she looked over her shoulder it was clear her best friend was absorbed with her phone conversation. Still, she was surprised Tikki would risk it, and entered her bedroom as quickly as she could without being suspicious about it, locking the door firmly behind her.

“Tikki, what’s wrong?”

“There’s an amok! I saw the news alert on your phone!” Tikki worried, her little paws pressing against her cheeks.

“Crap” Marinette cursed, grabbing her phone and checking the alert herself. There was very little information, and no pictures, but the alert did say where the amok was – far too close to a hospital which was struggling to evacuate patients.

“Marinette” Tikki drew her attention again, little voice deadly serious “you need to be extra careful now. I can focus a lot of my energy into protecting your pregnancy, but that would leave you open to other injuries that could be just as serious. Do you understand?”

“I understand Tikki” Mari grimaced a little, her hand moving to rub across her belly that hid the life she was growing “don’t worry about me, I’ll be careful, but we need to get down there fast – Spots on!”

Ladybug crawled out onto the fire escape, swinging her yoyo for the nearest rooftop and heading downtown as fast as she could. When she arrived at the scene, the only other hero to have arrived was Queen Bee.

“Well, I’m glad someone could make it” she said, her voice a little snippety – from the state of her hair, tangled around the bee hair comb, she’d obviously been fighting the amok before Ladybug arrived.

Ladybug ignored her tone and asked, “what’s going on?”

“The amok is attached to that guy down there” Queen Bee pointed to a man sitting on a bench apparently unphased by the chaos around him “he’s pissed with the hospital, he blames the doctors for the death of his wife after an accident. I tried talking to him but he’s totally out of it, practically unresponsive, I don’t think he even knows he caused _this_ ” she waved a hand towards the amok.

If Ladybug was ever going to imagine what the manifestation of someone’s anger and grief looked like, then this was what it would be. The sentimonster was huge, and looked like it was made out of some kind of mental, all of its edges where sharp and spikey, gleaming with the untold promise of hurt to those who went near it. It was waving its large forearms, much like a rampaging gorilla, destroying everything in its path towards the hospital.

“You try and find what the amok is possessing, if it’s attached to that man he may still have it with him, and I’ll try to slow down the Sentimonster – it can’t reach that hospital, okay?” Ladybug barked, assessing the situation closely – she was faster than Queen bee, and Queen bee would be more ruthless in her search for what could be possessing the amok and would likely find it sooner than she would, even if there was no doubt she’d need to apologise to the civilian for being so callous later. “I’ll send out a call for Carapace and Rena to help us.”

Queen been paused, cocking her head “not Chat?”

Ladybug knew she was being watched, she could practically feel Bee’s eyes drilling into her, but only shrugged keeping her eyes on her yoyo as she sent out the message “I’ll send it to him too, but he’s not answered any of my calls so far so… we probably shouldn’t get our hopes up. C’mon.”

Without giving Queen bee another chance to speak, she swung off the rooftop and towards the akuma.

Once she was near enough, she wondered just what to do to distract it. Chat always made it look easy, going out of his way to irritate the monsters and draw their focus onto him. But Tikki’s warning was ringing clear in her head, to be much more careful now than she used to be. Still, she needed to distract it from its path towards the hospital somehow, so she called out tauntingly from the top of a lamppost “hey spikey, you – uh- nope, I can’t think of a pun. You just remind me of a metallic hedgehog with some mega anger issues.”

The sentimonster turned to her and blinked. Or at least she thought it did, if those big sheets of metal on its would-be face where supposed to be eye lids because the definably moved. Then, suddenly, it lunged for her with a metallic groan that sounded like a dozen cars being crushed together. She swung her yoyo and zipped away before it hit her – the lamppost she’d balanced on wasn’t so lucky.

“I’m no good and distracting-” Ladybug grunted with effort, landing on the ground by the sentimonsters feet and not missing a beat as she swung the yoyo towards it’s makeshift feet, running around until the string was wrapped around its legs “-but I make a good trip hazard!” she yelled, pulling the string tightly, using a nearby tree as leverage, causing the string to squeeze around the metal legs and trip the monster, which fell into the street with a deafening groan of mental and a crash, kicking up dust from the broken road.

Coughing in the dust, Ladybug hoped it would take a while to get back up as she returned her yoyo to her hip. It hadnt looked like the most graceful of monsters, but it didn’t seem to matter. When the dust cleared, she was shocked to find the monster was already half back onto its feet, seemingly determined, but it’s focus now appeared to be on her.

She was so shocked she didn’t see the hit coming until she was thrown off her feet when it kicked out, hitting her in her left side, and sending her skidding across the road. Even through her suit she felt the grazes that would be left on her skin from the force of the gravel scraping against her.

“LB!?” She recognised Rena Rogues voice, so she wasn’t surprised to find the orange fox hero crouched beside her when she opened her eyes again. Behind her she could see Carapace already engaging the sentimonster in a fight, using his shell to deflect some metal spikes the monster apparently launched towards him like lethal missiles.

“I think I got it distracted enough to leave the hospital alone” Ladybug groaned, getting back on her feet.

“Oh my god, your shoulder!” Rena gasped, drawing Ladybugs attention to her own shoulder. Parts of her suit had been scraped away by the gravel – she assumed that was due to Tikki keeping her focus on protecting her more important areas – and the skin underneath was rubbed raw, bleeding in some areas.

“Never mind that” Ladybug dismissed, though now she had seen the wound it began to sting terribly “we need to keep the sentimonster distracted while Queen Been looks for the amok.”

Rena chewed on her lip, still eyeing up her wounded shoulder, but eventually she nodded “I can make an illusion of the hospital at the opposite end of the street, making it go the other direction for a while should help put some distance between it and the real hospital and give them time to evacuate in case of the worst.”

“Sounds good, I’ll go help Carapace.”

“Be careful!”

Ladybug didn’t reply, jumping back into the fight with Carapace as Rena disappeared to hide while she worked her illusion. It worked though, and the sentimonster turned around to head for the fake hospital, slowly walking to the wrong end of the street as Carapace and Ladybug worked to keep its chaos to a minimum.

Eventually though Rena’s illusion ran out, and the sentimonster – realising the trickery – let out an outranged roar of scraping metal that forced Ladybug and Carapace to cover their ears. In its rage, it began destroying everything in sight again – making a much faster pace towards the real hospital again.

It was getting far to close far too fast for Ladybugs comfort. “I’ll try to trip it again!” she called out to Carapace on the rooftops opposite her.

“Be careful Ladybug!” he called back “I’ll try keep its focus on me!”

She hit the ground again, and again threw her yoyo around one of its legs to run around and tangle it in the string. Her focus was entirely on dodging the debris of its rampage without falling, determined that it would not make it to the hospital, she didn’t realise she was in danger until she heard Carapace scream “Ladybug, watch out!”

The hit came from behind, knocking the wind out of her. She had barely a moment to think before hitting the ground, and instinctively used that moment to curl in on herself, protecting her stomach from the impact. She hit her head hard on the ground, and felt dazed for a few moments after, rolling onto her side with her arms still around her stomach. She was vaguely aware of yelling, recognising Rena and Carapace’s voices, before a shadow blocked out the sun. looking up she saw the looming spiked metal hand of the sentimonster reaching for her, she tried to move fast but felt like she was moving through jello and couldn’t seem to shake the feeling off as hand came closer and closer.

She blinked, trying to scramble away and shake her head of the slow feeling, but when she opened her eyes there as another shadow above her – a darker shadow. It took her a few more blinks to realise it wasn’t a shadow, and she hadn’t been grabbed by a cold metal grip, but that a figure in black leather was standing above her.

A few more blinks, her mind clearing, and she was able to see Chat Noir standing above her, a snarl on his face with his fake ears laid back into his hair, holding his baton up to push back on the sentimonsters hand still coming towards them. It also took her a moment to realise that the low rumbling noise she’d been hearing wasn’t coming from the sentimonster, but from Chat as he growled in anger.

She was so shocked she couldn’t move, almost afraid to do so in case she was dreaming, until arms reached hers and Rena pulled, dragging her away. Only when she was out of harms way did Chat move swiftly, the sentimonster stumbling once he was no longer their holding it back, and groaning when Chat leaped up its arm, delivering a swift smack to its makeshift face with his baton before leaping back to the ground and running towards Rena and Ladybug. Without a word he reached down, scooping Ladybug up into his arms and nodded towards Rena, apparently having an unspoken conversation, as the fox hero ran towards the monster to help Carapace and Chat carried Ladybug over to the bench where Queen Bee was still trying to get the amok from the distraught man.

“You’ve a lot of nerve” Queen Bee hissed as he set Ladybug down on the bench.

“I know” Chat didn’t look at her, he was focused entirely on Ladybug. Rubbing his clawed hand over the spot on her head where she’d hit the ground. When his eyes focused on her bloodied shoulder, the iris turned to slits in rage and she swore he hissed between his teeth.

“Why… why…” Ladybug was at a loss for words as she stared at her partner. She didn’t know why she felt so… numb at his sudden appearance. she didn’t know what to ask first, why he disappeared, why he reappeared now, why he didn’t return her calls, why he didn’t let her know he was okay after falling from that building…

“We will talk” he grabbed her hands, staring into her eyes pleadingly “we will. I promise. I’m… so sorry. I’ll explain as much as I can. Tonight.”

Ladybug blinked at him, practically begging her as he crouched on his knees to better see her face, and able to hear the sentimonster still causing havoc behind him. “Tonight” she agreed, noticing the fleeting look of relief on his face before he let go of her hands, racing off to help the other two with the monster.

“Mangy stray” Queen Bee muttered “he better apologise a thousand times, on his knees, before you forgive him spots.”

Ladybug heard her, but didn’t really register the words as she spotted something in the hands of the man on the bench beside her, the fog in her head beginning to clear. “Sir, what’s that, can I see it?”

The man didn’t respond, but his hand did loosen its hold on the balled-up paper in his hand. “He’s been like this the whole time” Queen bee said, watching as Ladybug took the paper from his hands. She unfolded the scrunched-up ball, reading what was written for a moment before she sighed.

“I think this is it” she said, hesitating only slightly before she ripped the paper apart. From it floated the magical blue feather that had caused all the trouble, and with a swing of her yoyo she captured it and purified it the sentimonster melting away and leaving nothing on the street but the carnage it had caused and three exhausted heroes.

Standing up, another swing of her yoyo, and the swarm of magical ladybugs swept across the city fixing everything the monster had broken – though from the string to her shoulder and the ache in her head she knew that her injuries where not part of what was fixed this time.

Ladybug turned to the nameless civilian and pressed the paper back into his hand “sir… I know it’s hard but please, I don’t think your wife would want you to destroy yourself over this. If you need help there’s plenty of placed to go, I hope you get what you need.”

For the first time Queen Bee had seen, the man reacted. He looked up at Ladybug and blinked, tears springing to his eyes as he nodded but still said nothing. Ladybug only nodded back, patting his shoulder before nodding to Queen bee that they should leave. One by one the hero’s got off the street, congregating on a nearby rooftop – though there seemed to be some division, as Carapace, Rena and Queen Bee all stood slightly behind Ladybug, and away from Chat Noir.

Chat noticed; his ears laid back as he rubbed his arm awkwardly “I’m sorry. I know it doesn’t mean much, and I’ll explain better when we have more time. I promise.”

Queen bee snorted but didn’t say anything more to anyone as she left the rooftop heading – probably – for her home. Rena had a similar reaction, though she stepped forward to poke his black leather chest as she growled “you better have a damn good explanation fleabag” before turning to Carapace and indicating that they should leave too, the turtle hero sparing only a moment to give Chat a unfortunate look and a shrug.

Ladybug only watched him as her earing began to beep. She said nothing, and Chat stared back feeling an increasing amount of dream at her silence. “Ladybug, your shoulder…”

He tried to reach for her injury, but stopped short when she recoiled from his touch, glancing away from him. He dropped his arm, a feeling of hopelessness clawing at his belly.

“Tonight, you’ll explain” was all she said, taking her yoyo off her hip as her earing beeped a second time.

“Tonight. Everything I can, I swear it.”

She nodded, but still didn’t look at him. “Alright. Tonight.” She swung away, earing beeping again urgently, and leaving the black cat hero standing on the rooftop alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yep, last chapter was quite a short one so have one with lots of things going on to make up for it. Originally this was going to be two chapters, but they where very short so I figured why not merge them? Personally, I hate small chapters so.... 
> 
> Hope you all enjoy, and are staying safe x


	8. Chapter Eight

“Argh!” Marinette groaned, rolling over on her bed and burying her face into her pillow “I don’t get it Tikki!”

Tikki peered over the top of the wardrobe. This was the first time Marinette had actually spoken since they had come home after the fight with the amok that morning. The kwami had thought it best to leave her chosen alone for a while, as she didn’t seem in much of a mood to talk about what had happened. She hadn’t even spoken to Alya when she had come knocking on the door to check if she wanted to go out for lunch with her and Nino. The only think she had done when they came home was take medicine for her headache after getting slammed into the floor and wash the gravel out of the grazes on her shoulder. After changing into a pair of pyjama shorts and a tank top, she’d lain on her bed for hours stuck in a swirling tornado of her own thoughts and feelings.

“What’s wrong Marinette?” she asked, floated down towards her “I thought you’d be happy when Chat returned?”

“So did I!” Mari cried, throwing the pillow off her face and bed completely, running a hand through her hair in frustration as she sat up “but… it’s like I don’t feel anything at all! Not even anger! What does that mean?”

Tikki settled on the bedside table, underneath the lamp, and tilted her head thoughtfully “are you scared you don’t love him anymore?”

“I…” Mari hesitated “maybe. But… I mean, I’m pretty sure I do… I do love him Tikki, I’m just so confused…”

“Well, think about it Marinette” Tikki floated up to her chosen’s shoulder so she could pat her cheek gently “Chat has been missing for six weeks, without a word, Mayura has begun attacking the city, Hawkmoth has escaped, your study deadlines are catching up and you’ve just found out you where pregnant… that’s _a lot_ for someone to deal with emotionally in a short space of time. You might be a hero, but you need to concentrate on taking care of yourself sometimes too. Perhaps feeling nothing is your way of guarding yourself from anymore hurt.”

Mari blinked, curling her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms around them. Had it really only been six weeks? It had felt like months had passed for her. 

“It’s almost time to go, are you sure you want to?” Tikki asked, concerned “I’m sure Chat and the others would understand.”

“No” she rubbed her tired eyes with the palms of her hands “no, he can’t give me an explanation if I don’t show up – and I doubt Rena or Queen bee will be very forgiving on their own. Besides, I have to tell him I’m pregnant at some point, who knows if I’ll get another chance…”

Tikki hugged her cheek “I’m sure everything will be fine Marinette, even if it doesn’t seem like it now.”

Mari smiled, rubbing her kwami’s head with a finger softly making her giggle “thank you Tikki.”

****

Ladybug was nervous. It wasn’t exactly unusual for her, but normally once she donned her spots the confidence, she felt behind the mask was enough to disguise the nerves. Finally getting to talk to Chat though, was enough to set her on the edge, and she ended up finishing her patrol of the city a whole half an hour early and was left waiting at the meeting spot for the night – a rooftop with decent cover from prying eyes near the Louvre.

She spent the extra time sitting on a wall at the edge of the roof, flicking through the app on yoyo that allowed her to answer her civilian phone. Normally she wouldn’t do this, but she didn’t feel like sitting there with only her thoughts for company – again – and her mother had been texting her pictures. Apparently after she’d told her parents about her pregnancy, her mother had decided to go through some of their old storage boxes and was sending her pictures of the old baby clothes and toys they had kept from when Marinette was a baby. The more pictures she went through, the more she smiled, and by the time she came to the last picture – her father holding a stuffed white rabbit she remembered having as a child, one he had bought for her the day she was born from the hospital store – she felt her eyes burning with unshed tears.

Snapping her yoyo shut, Ladybug rubbed furiously at her eyes behind the mask – she didn’t want anyone to think she’d been crying after all. After she felt the wetness fade she snorted with amusement at the absurdity of the tears, rubbing a hand lightly over her stomach “your causing me a lot of trouble I hope you know, I’m getting a little tired of spontaneously bursting into tears.”

“LB?”

Ladybug jumped up quickly, moving her hand well away from her stomach, and looked to her left where Rena and Carapace had arrived. She was about to greet them when she realised, they looked a little odd, embarrassed. “What’s wrong?” she asked immediately feeling her spine stiffen, her earlier shoulder injury twinging with the movement.

“Nothings wrong…” Rena began, wincing a little as she glanced at Carapace “but… we thought we’d get here early because we, uh, kind of wanted to confess something.”

Ladybug glanced between the two, waiting. “What is it?”

“Well you see, um…”

“Rena and I accidentally discovered out civilian identities after we fought Hawkmoth” Carapace blurted, slapping a hand over his mouth as Rena gaped at him.

Ladybug stared.

“Sorry, I wanted to explain it better” Rena glared at Carapace, who only shrugged “we didn’t mean to find out, we know how adamant you where that we keep it a secret until after Hawkmoth was gone and we’d all tell each other, but turns out we’re actually rather close in our civilian lives and it just… kind of happened.”

“And now, with Hawkmoth’s escaped and Mayura attacking for whatever reason besides totally random chaos” Carapace spoke up, looking slightly embarrassed “we just thought you should know.”

Sighing, Ladybug sat back down on the wall and rubbed her temples feeling the headache from being slammed into the floor earlier beginning to return. She wished she could talk to Master Fu about this. Did it matter anymore to keep their identities a secret? Mayura may have helped Hawkmoth in the past, but she didn’t seem to be focusing her attacks on taking the miraculous like he did. Even if she did, Hawkmoth’s main focus seemed to be taking the Cat and Ladybug miraculous, did he also want the fox and the turtle?

“What’s wrong, why does she look like her heads broken?” Queen bee arrived with a flourish on the rooftop, but paused upon seeing the two uncomfortable heroes and their leader with her head in her hands.

“Rena and I accidentally found out our civilian identities.”

“So?” Queen bee rolled her eyes, putting a hand on her hip “who cares? I’m pretty sure I know all your identities by now. Freaking obvious once you actually think about it, even if our miraculous cloak it.”

“What?” the other three looked at her, raising their eyebrows.

“What?” Queen bee repeated, tossing her hair behind her “some of us have brains as well as beauty you know.”

“Okay, okay” Ladybug stood up, closing her eyes and counting to five in her head before she spoke again “just… fine. I can’t exactly force you to forget discovering your identities… and I’m not going to take your miraculous from you, that decision lies with Master Fu. Frankly, as long as you can still concentrate on your jobs then I have no problems with it because it was an accident. Queen Bee, keep whatever assumptions you have under your hat until we figure our situation out.”

The yellow hero snorted, rolling her eyes again (briefly making Ladybug wonder if she ever got a headache from doing that so often) and asked “why does it even matter anymore? Hawkmoth was the one who wanted the miraculous, Mayura doesn’t even seem to be targeting us.”

“That’s true” Rena agreed, her shoulders relaxing a little as her ears bounced when she nodded “and even if Gabriel has escaped, the butterfly miraculous is safe with Master Fu, he can’t come after us again.”

“Are you all forgetting that Mayura worked with Hawkmoth?” Ladybug snapped, starting to get irritated as she fixed them all with a glare “not only that, but she is the one who helped Gabriel escape custody in the first place. Who’s to say she won’t help him finish what he started as Hawkmoth?”

Rena still argued “but the butterfly miraculous- “

“-was taken” Chat’s voice made them all look around, seeing that he had joined them while their focus was elsewhere. He looked sombre; his leather tail curled around one of his legs as he stood a little further away from the group. He met Ladybug’s bluebell gaze for only a moment, his expression almost pleading, before he continued “Master Fu was attacked a few nights ago, and the butterfly miraculous was taken while he was trying to heal Nooroo. The other miraculous are safe. Master Fu was in the hospital the sentimonster was trying to attack earlier today, that’s probably why Mayura created it.”

Silence fell on the rooftop as they digested what he said.

“Master Fu?” Ladybug asked, the first one to break the silence as she stared at Chat. She was trying to keep her racing heart under control but wasn’t sure she was succeeding. She also wasn’t sure why it raced, the news of Master Fu and the stolen miraculous, or the fact Chat had actually shown up, when she was half sure that he wouldn’t.

“He’s okay” Chat assured her, one of his ears twitching as he thought about it for a second “he got a nasty bump on his head and a few stitches to a cut on his arm but nothing too serious. They released him after the sentimonster nearly attacked the hospital, and he took the miraculous box not a new location.”

“But the butterfly miraculous was stolen when he was attacked?” Rena asked, dread in her voice.

“Yes… he said Mayura came for it personally, though he has no idea how she knew where to find him” Chat bit his lip “that’s why not even I know where he is now. He’ll approach us on his terms, but we won’t be able to find him.”

Ladybug cursed internally, knowing now she’d not get the guidance she sorely wanted from the old guardian. He had too much faith in her, she thought, to lead this team and was unlikely to approach her if he thought she could handle it without him. It was a lot of pressure when she was fifteen, and that pressure hadn’t lessened with age.

“Great” Carapace growled, sitting down on a metal duct “is Mayura took it then its only a matter of time before Hawkmoth makes a return.”

“But… he’ll be easy to find right?” Queen bee asked, her normally confident voice wavering slightly “I mean Gabriel Agreste isn’t exactly a face people are going to forget, someone will spot him… and when they do, we’ll come for him. _And_ Mayura!”

Ladybug had been staring hard at the floor but looked up when she felt eyes on her. They where looking at her, of course they were, she was normally the one to encourage them at a time like this. It was her job. She should be encouraging them. But… behind the scenes it was normally Chat who encouraged her, who made her believe that she could do this, and even with him stood right there in front of her she still felt like she’d lost him…

Clearing her throat, she addressed them all in the strongest voice she could muster “Queen Bee is right. Hawkmoth and Mayura can’t and won’t stay hidden very long, and we will find them. Right now, we don’t have a lot to go off, but we will be vigilant. We’re going to go back to doubling patrols okay?” The others murmured in agreement, taking on their assigned patrols like they had done in the past.

Eventually Queen Bee turned to Chat and asked “so, don’t you owe us an explanation for disappearing for a month?”

His ears flattened into his hair again as all their eyes landed on him. Somehow when he had imagined this it had seemed easy, but now that it came to it, he found himself tongue tied. Taking a deep breath to settle his nerves he looked at them all, until his eyes came to rest on a sad bluebell gaze. He hoped she could read in his face, in his words, just how sorry he was. “I do owe you explanation, and I’m more sorry than any of you can realise. When I fell off that roof with Hawkmoth, I grabbed his miraculous but… he grabbed mine too.”

Rena gasped “did he see your civilian form?”

Chat snorted angrily, his tail lashing at this “no, I don’t think so… he would’ve recognised me. We’ve met.”

“Okay, so why did you disappear then?” Queen bee folded her arms, clearly unimpressed with him still.

“I don’t know how it happened but when I hit the ground, I cracked my ring. My miraculous” he waved his gloved hand with the cat paw ring on it for them to see. “So, I went to Master Fu, he could fix it, but the damage to my kwami was… he got sick, really sick. I couldn’t transform, even if I’d been in any fit shape to.”

“I didn’t know the miraculous could be broken” Carapace was surprised, rubbing the bracelet on his wrist thoughtfully.

“Master Fu was surprised too” Chat agreed “guess I just landed wrong…”

Queen bee was tapping her foot. “Fine, I guess that’s a good reason to be gone, if your kwami was sick. But if you do it again, I won’t forgive you fleabag, understand?”

“Understood” he had twitched at the ‘fleabag’ comment but didn’t retaliate to it. Queen bee seemed surprised, but after a glance towards Ladybug she seemed to come to some sort of realisation. “I’m going to run a quick patrol around the city then, I have energy to burn and an ass or two to kick would be rather nice right now.”

Rena seemed to realise the same thing Queen bee had, and made her fast goodbyes as well – dragging a confused Carapace behind her – but did pause long enough beside Chat to whisper “if you hurt LB, Queenie wont be the only one your answering to, understand?”

Chat only nodded, meeting her gaze, and finding himself with the eerie sense of Deja vu though he couldn’t quite place why. The two heroes took off across the rooftops, leaving Chat and Ladybug alone. He didn’t move, he felt like he couldn’t, so he remained frozen stood before her waiting for her to speak.

“Is Plagg okay?” she finally broke the silence.

“Y-yeah” he hadn’t expected that question, and stuttered the answer, feeling himself blush slightly at the way his words tumbled out “eh, I mean, about as okay as Plagg ever is. But he’s really picked up the last few weeks… and Master Fu gave him the all clear when we saw him in the hospital. Still try to give him a lot or rest though.”

“That’s… good” Ladybug tried to smile, but the expression fell flat, and she turned to look across the city instead of at him as they fell back into an awkward silence. There was so much they both wanted to say, but neither of them was quite sure where to start.

“I… my- Ladybug” Chat sighed, trying to find his words as she looked back at him with wide sad eyes again. he hated that look on her face, he wanted to do anything to make her smile again, he’d move the stars if he could, but what he had to say would probably only make her more upset. Still, he had to say it. He owed her the truth… even if he might lose her completely. “There’s… more to why I didn’t come back sooner. Why I didn’t try to contact you, when I know now that I should have. I can’t imagine how much I’ve hurt you, and I don’t deserve your forgiveness, so I won’t ask for it but… I do owe you the truth.”

Ladybug hesitated, rubbing her hands together like she was cold when he knew it was something she did when she was stressed. “Go on” she urged, her voice barely above a whisper.

“I… my civilian self I mean…” he was struggling to find his words again, and began to pace in front of her, his tail lashing behind him wildly “… Ladybug when I took that brooch off Hawkmoth and saw who he was beneath… I just… I can’t… I’m afraid, that when you see who I am under my mask, that you’ll hate me too and… I don’t think I could stand to see you hate me.”

Ladybug blinked at him, utterly confused. Of all the things she had expected him to say, that wasn’t it, not that what he’d said had actually made much sense at all. He seemed to understand that, letting out a hiss of frustration as he stopped pacing, his tail still lashing as he ran a clawed hand through his hair.

“Chat…” she began, keeping her voice steady so she didn’t aggravate him any further “I’m not going to pretend that a lot of what you just said made any sense to me, but I know I wont hate you no matter what you think. I’m… a bit confused, a lot has happened while you were gone, but I know I love you. You’re my partner, no matter what.”

Chat stared into her eyes, his tail slowed behind him, as his entire expression softened “I love you too.”

Finally, Ladybug smiled, but the expression didn’t last too long as she bit her lip and confessed “but… I have some things I need to tell you too.”

He felt a sense of dread building in him again “what is it my lady?”

The use of the nickname, one she had grown to love and sorely missed the last few weeks, brough the nervous smile back to her face. “I’m… not sure where to start- “

She was cut off when Chat’s ring beeped. They both looked at it in surprise, but he shrugged sheepishly at her and apologised “sorry, I have less time since Plagg was injured. Can we continue this another time my Lady? I promise, I’ll be there.”

“Um” Ladybug was jolted out of her stare as she drew her eyes back up to his hopeful expression. “I… well. Um… what if you didn’t… have to leave?”

His expression went blank. “I… what do you mean?”

“I… guess I mean that you -um- don’t have to leave…” she rubbed her arm shyly, though his blank stare was discouraging her with every word that left her mouth.

Chat stared at her in shock for a few heartbeats, his ring beeping again before saying “I… don’t think that would be a good idea Ladybug. Not yet. Remember, Hawkmoth could still return… its best we don’t know each other’s identities… not yet.”

“But, what if I need to know? Or need you to know?” she took a step forward as he tried to retreat, pressing him. In the back of her mind the irony wasn’t lost on her that for once it was her asking for his identity when he had asked her thousands of times in the past.

“Ladybug…” Chat’s voice was soft, almost lost on the gentle autumn breeze as he pleaded with her to understand “we can’t…” he turned around, stepping up onto the edge of the building ledge as the ring beeped a third time, another green paw pad disappearing on his ring. This time Ladybug didn’t stop him, she couldn’t find the words to do so even if she’d wanted to, and watched him disappear off the ledge leaving her alone on the rooftop – though, she was almost sure she had heard him whisper before he left.

“Please don’t hate me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What's this, 2 chapters in one day? Oh my! Well, truth is I'm off work for a few days to help toilet train my new puppy and turns out she's extremely easy so every time she naps I've been writing. Hope you enjoyed the 'talk' chapter. Though, these two still have A LOT to talk about. Probably would help if I didn't make them so self sabotaging... 3:)


	9. Chapter Nine

Alya was staring at Marinette over the back of the sofa, and the other girl didn’t seem to have noticed yet. They where supposed to be having a dinner and board game night with the boys, but after discovering all of the paper money from their monopoly game has gone mysteriously missing it had quickly turned into a Mecha Strike night instead. Nino and Adrien where locked in a particularly rough game against one another, and hadn’t noticed what Alya had, so neither boy blinked much when the red head got up without a word and headed into the kitchen.

“What’s wrong?” she asked Mari immediately, keeping her voice low so the boys wouldn’t hear.

Mari jumped, unaware anyone had come into the kitchen, but tried to hide her surprise with a fake smile “what? Nothing’s wrong!”

“Yyyeah” Alya drawled, folding her arms over her chest and raising an eyebrow at the bluenette “because that totally wasn’t your lying voice, and you definitely weren’t staring into space with the saddest look on your face while pouring chilli powder into our dinner….”

“I what?!” Marinette yelped, turning her attention to the large pot on the stove, she picked up a spoon and tasted it, grimacing “dammit, I hope you like it spicy.”

Alya snorted “so, gonna tell me what’s up? Does it have anything to do with… you-know-what?” she pointed at Marinette’s stomach, causing the other girl to give her a dry look.

“Maybe” she said, checking to make sure the boy’s really weren’t paying them any attention (she needn’t have bothered, the match was over and Nino was asking Adrien how he’d pulled off that last move so the blonde was showing him to combo buttons on the controller) before whispering to Alya “I uh… I saw _him_ yesterday.”

“Him?”

“Yeah… _him_.”

Alya was confused for a moment, then it dawned on her that Mari probably meant the father. “Ooh” she gasped “you mean your secret lov-“

“Shhh!” Marinette slapped a hand to the red head’s mouth – the boys had gone quiet in the sitting room, though when she checked it just looked like they where gearing up for another match.

“Sorry” Alya didn’t look very sorry, in fact she looked like she was vibrating with excitement “so, how did it go, did you tell him?”

“I tried… but he left before I could get the courage.”

“He WHAT!” Alya slapped a hand over her own mouth this time, and they both looked over to see the boys staring at them quizzically. The girls only waved at them, and though they still threw them curious looks Nino and Adrien went back to the video game, muttering to themselves, probably about how weird girls where.

“What do you mean he left?” Alya growled it this time “seriously, who is this guy? Because I think he deserves to know the wrath of Alya is coming for him.”

“It wasn’t his fault, really… I just wish I’d been able to get it out while he was stood in front of me” Mari sighed “but… its harder than I thought it would be.”

“I can imagine” Alya gave her a look of sympathy “but, do you want my advice?”

“I’m taking all suggestions.”

“Just do it, muster up all that bravery _we know_ you have, grab him and – if it makes you feel better – just yell it. The sooner you get it out, the sooner you’ll feel better.”

Marinette paused for a moment, wondering what would have happened the other night if she had just screamed at Chat that she was pregnancy and he was the only one who could be the father. With the mood he had been in she wasn’t sure how he’d have taken it. Possibly fallen off the roof.

“Babe?” Nino called from the sitting room, peering over the sofa at the girls “you okay?”

“Yeah babe, just some girl talk” Alya yelled back, giving him a double thumbs up “I hope you guys like your chilli extra spicy, Mari got a bit distracted when adding the spices.”

“I think we can handle a bit of spice” Nino declared, smirking at Adrien who looked somewhat apprehensive about it.

As it turned out, over the course of the night, the boys couldn’t handle the extra chilli Mari had accidentally added – though they did their best, turning it into a bit of a competition over who could eat the most, which was ultimately won by Alya when both Nino and Adrien where gulping down pints of water and she was having her third bowl with a smug look on her face. Mari laughed at them, but it didn’t go unnoticed that she barely touched her own meal by her friends, but she only shrugged and said she felt a bit sick when they asked about it. Alya didn’t press the matter, and elbowed Adrien discreetly every time he tried to get Mari to eat a bit more.

Eventually the night was over, with Mari reigning victorious over the other three on Mecha Strike as usual, and they parted ways. Adrien lingered a little, waiting to Nino to say goodbye to Alya, before they walked across the road to their own apartment. They chatted a little, but Nino soon excused himself to bed for the night as he had an early start to meet with a few music producers in the morning about a possible internship.

Adrien waiting until he was gone before fetching a piece of camembert from the fridge and went to his own room where he lay on the bed without changing his clothes, thinking. Plagg floated out of his breast pocket, straight to the plate of cheese.

They hadn’t spoken much since the other night when he’d finally talked to Ladybug again. After he’d de-transformed in an alley and walked home, Plagg had exploded at him. It wasn’t often Plagg would yell at him like that, so Adrien had been very taken aback. The Kwami had said he didn’t give Ladybug a chance to talk to him, and had berated him for telling her off for wanting to know his identity despite him asking for the same thing for years. Plagg even pointed out how his relationship with her was unlikely to work out if they never shared their identities, and it was unfair that he knew hers but refused to share his.

As shocked as he was, Adrien had found himself getting annoyed with the kwami in return. He could have stayed to talk to her longer if his transformation wasn’t running out, not to mention finding out who he was might just kill their relationship as well. Besides that, if Hawkmoth did return, it was safer if she didn’t know who he was – he couldn’t imagine what his father would do if he found out he as Chat Noir. In Adrien’s mind it wasn’t going to be safe for her to know who he was until he had personally seen to it that his father was back behind bars where he couldn’t hurt anyone again, and the butterfly miraculous safely with the guardian again. If that meant torturing himself by being so close to her but unable to act upon his feelings, then so be it, for her safety.

Plagg, of course, told him he was dumb.

Staring up at the blank ceiling, Adrien couldn’t help going over what he had overheard that night. Being Chat Noir so long had affected him outside of transformations, much like it had Ladybug, so his hearing was somewhat above the average persons (which had made sneaking around the manor easy when he was younger) but also meant he had been able to hear the hushed conversation between Mari and Alya earlier. He wasn’t quite sure what they had been discussing, they’d clearly been trying to make sure that neither he or Nino could figure it out if they had heard them, but something about it made his skin crawl.

Perhaps because he felt like they had been talking about him… or rather, about Chat. Clearly Mari had told Alya something about a guy, so it was probably him, right? Or perhaps it was Luka, he had seen them in that coffee shop looking pretty comfortable with each other, and he knew they had dated briefly before he and Ladybug got together. While he had been gone had they rekindled something? Was that what Ladybug had wanted to talk to him about?

Adrien groaned and rolled onto his side, folding his pillow over his face. If she had moved on to Luka while he was gone he wouldn’t have blamed her…

“You’re torturing yourself for no good reason” Plagg spoke up, burping as he took his last bite of cheese.

“Oh, are you talking to me now?” Adrien snarked, lifting his face from the pillow.

“Nope” Plagg floated away, folding his little arms over his chest “I’m just talking near you. Because you wont listen. Your rather torture yourself over something that isn’t even your fault!”

“What are you talking about?”

But Plagg didn’t reply, just rolled his big green eyes and retreated to the top of the wardrobe leaving Adrien staring after him, confused. Eventually he grumbled “fine, stay quiet. Don’t forget we have patrol in the morning, so don’t stay up too late.”

A loud snore was all that answer him. Adrien rolled his eyes, knowing Plagg was probably faking it, before getting up to change for bed. As he was about to shut his blinds he happened to glance up, pausing briefly when he noticed Marinette’s bedroom window still ablaze with light despite the late hour. He let his mind wander, wondering if she was keeping herself awake with some sewing project like she did when they where teens and he’d visit her late at night as Chat.

But it wasn’t a sewing project that was keeping Marinette awake. She was sitting up in her bed, a dozen notebooks strewn around her, while Tikki watched from a plate of cookies on the nightstand.

“Yknow Tikki, I never thought pregnancy would be this stressful… I always thoughts it was the bit after, when you’ve got this completely helpless little person relying on you completely, that was the most stressful part” she said, tapping her pen on the notebook on her lap.

Tikki giggled “you’re not the first mother to be surprised by that. Besides, you don’t need to worry about all this stuff right now. You should be getting some sleep – remember what the doctor said about resting?”

“I know, but I can’t sleep… there’s just so much to do.”

Tikki floated over, landing on the notebook “one problem, one day at a time Marinette. What’s your biggest problem right now?”

“Uh…” she thought about it. She’d already done most of what the doctors had suggested, like booking her first check-up appointments and getting bottles of vitamins to keep her and the baby healthy. “I… suppose it’s telling Chat.”

Tikki raised a hand to her chin thoughtfully “yes… it’s a complicated situation. Normally I’d agree that you should keep your identities hidden with the risk of Hawkmoth returning, though we don’t actually know if Mayura returned the butterfly brooch to Gabriel yet. But Chat really should be told he’s going to be a father.”

“Yeah, but you heard him the other night, he seemed pretty adamant that we shouldn’t reveal our identities to each other…” he’d certainly changed his tune while he was gone, something she found herself growing rather annoyed with when she thought about it. He’d asked her for years to share their identities, but now that she had an actual reason that she needed to tell him he didn’t want to know?

Tikki sighed “he seems to think that you’ll hate him if you find out who he is.”

“I could never hate him” Marinette declared, sitting up straighter and nearly dislodging Tikki from where she sat on the notebook “even if he’s the most infuriating, backwards, foolish damn alley cat to hold the Cat Miraculous, I just cant hate him.”

Tikki laughed “he’s actually not the _most_ infuriating Chat Noir I’ve seen, but they’re all quite foolish if I do say so. Plagg has a type I think!”

Marinette joined her laughter “glad to know all the past Ladybugs have shared a similar experience with their Chats.”

“Well, not all of them…” Tikki sobered a little, though a faint smile remained on her face “some Chat’s and Ladybugs, well, some of them hated each other. Some even became enemies. Those Ladybug and Chats… it was difficult.”

Mari perked up at this, staring at Tikki as the smile on her face slowly faded “they were enemies?”

“Oh… yes” Tikki’s voice was joyless now “just because Plagg and I are connected doesn’t always mean our chosen holders are… your still your own person, with your own decisions to make. Us kwami’s can try to guide you, but we can’t stop you. So, some Chat Noirs and Ladybug’s ended up on the opposite sides of a fight, as enemies.”

Mari reached out to let Tikki sit on her hands, holding her Kwami close as she felt her heart breaking for the little god who was still so obviously saddened by these past holders. Tikki sat on her hand graciously, and continued talking “the ying and yang effect of the good and bad luck doesn’t always result in a relationship like yours with Chat, sometimes it goes the opposite way and you are destined to loathe each other, even though your miraculous work best when in harmony together.”

A realisation dawned on Marinette and she sighed, using her finger to stroke Tikki’s head softly “I can’t imagine how hard that was for you and Plagg.”

Tikki nodded “it can be painful for us when our holders fight one another… worse if they end up killing each other.”

Mari gasped “did…?”

Tikki turned to gaze up at her, suddenly looking every bit as old as she was, the sadness etched so deeply on her face you’d think everything she spoke of had happened just yesterday. Though, for an ageless god, perhaps it did feel like that for her. “… I’m getting tired Marinette. I just thought you should know that Chat’s fears aren’t maybe so unfounded. Your human, and it’s possible for your love to turn to hate – though, I don’t think it will. Your far too nice for that Marinette, and Chat has never proven himself to be anything but kind. He’s scared, so you may have to prove to him that your feelings won’t change.”

Mari stared as Tikki floated off towards the top of the wardrobe in the corner “how am I supposed to do that?”

“I’m sorry Marinette, I don’t know” Tikki shook her head slowly, though her voice was thoughtful “perhaps telling him about your baby would be enough, you want him to be involved, don’t you?”

Marinette blinked “of course… I mean, if he wants to be.”

“Maybe telling him that would prove to him how much you care?”

“But…” Mari hesitated, her eyes going wide with a sudden thought she hadn’t really contemplated earlier “what If he _doesn’t_ want this baby?”

“Oh Marinette, Chat has a good and kind heart, I’m sure that’s not something you need to worry about!” Tikki tired offering comforting words, but she could see from her chosen’s expression that she was over thinking it again.

“But- “

“-Marinette” Tikki interrupted her “your torturing yourself with ‘what if’s’, you need to tell him. For your own peace of mind, all this worrying isn’t healthy for you or a baby!”

“I know” Mari let out a breath she hadn’t realised she was holding, falling backwards onto her bed and scattering her forgotten notebooks “I’m just… scared.”

“I wish I could make it easier for your Marinette” Tikki sighed “but being scared doesn’t have to be a weakness. You where scared when you first became Ladybug, and look at what you accomplished!”

Marinette lifted her head and raised an eyebrow at Tikki “are you suggesting I yell at Chat and destroy him with my yoyo like I did that giant face of Hawkmoth?”

Tikki giggled “that wasn’t what I meant. I mean that even when you doubt yourself, you’re capable of doing things you never thought you could. You’re scared, but you can do this.”

Digesting her words, knowing she was right, and that overthinking would only get herself more worried, Marinette sighed and lay her head back down so she could stare up at the ceiling. She knew she needed to tell Chat soon, and that his reaction could be negative, but the sooner she got it done the better for both of them.

****

If he was asked Chat would always admit that he preferred night patrols, but the morning ones had something to offer as well. Most of Paris was just waking up, the only ones who bothered to look up from the streets and see him jumping rooftops overhead where usually school kids and he was more than happy to give them a wave or linger longer than usual so they could snap a picture. If he was in an especially good mood he may even call out to them, stop to talk, but he didn’t today. No, he’d woken up with a refreshed determination to use his patrol to do something towards tracking down his father and Mayura. Of course, that was easier said than done, so he went to the only place he could think of that would hold any details of where his father might hide.

He hadn’t come back to the manor since his father was arrested, and felt an odd sense of apprehension as he approached the looming building, but as much as he wanted to just turn and walk away the drive to find his father was stronger. Sneaking along the rooftop of the manor as he had done so many times before, he didn’t duck into his old bedroom window as he had thousands of times as a teen. Instead he went to the other side of the manor and used his claws to pry open the window to the room that had been his fathers’ study.

Almost everything of value in the room had been taken, by police or Nathalie when he told her to put things in storage, he wasn’t sure but there where still a few things lying around, and the furniture intact. He didn’t know exactly what he was looking for, so he snooped everywhere. The bookshelves, that where mostly empty of books now, the filing cabinets – those where completely empty, all the files taken, and the desk that was abandoned there, but that was also empty. He wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting, but he had hoped to find _something_. He left the manor to continue his usual patrol route, but this time he didn’t bother to acknowledge any of the excited citizens who where overjoyed to see the return of Chat Noir to their streets.

His frustration hadn’t ebbed by the time he finished the patrol, climbing to the top of the Eiffel tower to rest and survey the city from afar.

“I thought you’d end up here eventually” her voice made him jump.

“Ladybug!” he turned, finding her leaning with her arms wrapped around her middle as she shivered slightly from the bitter autumn wind that was blowing that morning. “What are you doing here? You must be freezing!” their suits protected them from the worst of the elements it was true, but she’d confided in him a while ago that just as his time as the black cat holder had improved his hearing and other senses, being the ladybug holder had made her more susceptible to the cold – after she told him he’d started bringing blankets to their patrol nights in winter, just so she could keep warm.

“I’ll be fine” she waved away his concerns, then chewed on her lip “Chat, I need to tell you something.”

Chat froze, eyeing her up. A thousand thoughts raced through his mind, most of them evolved around Marinette and Luka’s coffee date and the cryptic conversation she’d had with Alya in the kitchen the night before, dread settling in the pit of his stomach like a lead balloon. He couldn’t say anything though, not without revealing he knew who she was.

Ladybug had seen the way his face paled, and frowned “Chat?”

“Is this about the identity thing, the other night?” Chat blurted, the first thing that came to his mind.

“Um” Ladybug’s eyebrows shot up, taken aback by his assumption “I… suppose it is. Kind of.”

Letting out a relived breath and standing a little straighter Chat said, “you know we can’t share our identities.”

“Yes” Ladybug bit out the word, her lips pulling into a frown “but-“

“-no but’s” he interrupted her, turning away to look at the city instead, more to hide his own pained expression as he said “you told me so many times My lady, and I still pressed to know who you where, but I know now I was wrong to do so. Our masks are our protection, we can’t know who we are. I’m sorry, you know I would never betray you but… I can’t risk being close with you outside of this mask too, if Hawkmoth or Mayura ever found out who even one of us is it wouldn’t be hard to figure out the other’s identity.”

“I know all that Chat, but things have changed- “

“-No, they haven’t!” his tail lashed, his earlier frustration returning as his voice became a growl “he’s still out there, he’s still a threat to you – to us.”

“Chat…”

“It’s not a risk I’m willing to take My Lady… I’m sorry” he said it firmly, though he felt his heart aching with how cold he sounded. He removed his baton, intending to leave before she could say anything that might sway his wavering resolve on the issue – because it would be so easy, so simple to admit he knew who she was, that she was one of his best and closest friends, only the fact that he might ruin his relationship with her stopped him.

He froze however when she shouted her next words at him.

“I’m pregnant Chat!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, puppy training is going well... hahaha... I'm exhausted *faceplants bed* 
> 
> So, she finally got to tell him. Perhaps she should have waiting until he wasn't on the edge of a tall structure first, but since he's determined to be an overlord of angst, yelling at him was probably the best route. Writing his reaction is going to be fun >:)


	10. Chapter Ten

“I’m pregnant Chat!”

The words hit him like a physical force, his entire body seizing in shock as he rocked forward on his feet about to leap from the tower – the only reason he didn’t fall is because Ladybug had the sense to grab him by his tail and pull him back until his feet where steady.

He looked back at her, but she wasn’t looking at him. Her bluebell gaze was fixed somewhere near his feet, and she had her arms folded, but he noticed a blush on her cheeks. “I… didn’t mean to yell” she mumbled, still not looking “I just needed to tell you.”

“I…” Chat felt like the world around him had frozen. He wasn’t even sure he’d heard her right. “I… you… you’re…?”

“Pregnant” she nodded, repeating herself, still not meeting his eyes.

He half turned towards her now, shifting uneasily on his feet at the edge of the platform and pinning her down with his gaze when she risked a glance up. “Is it…?”

“Yours. It’s yours.”

As quickly as the world around him had frozen, it came crashing back down. A million thoughts and feelings assaulted him at once – he was going to be a dad? Would it be a boy or a girl? Would he be a good dad? He didn’t exactly have the best role model… did he deserve to have a family? He would later thank whatever god may have been looking down on him at that moment, that none of those thoughts made it past his lips. Instead, he asked “are you okay?”

Ladybug blinked in surprise “I… am now. I’ve had time to get used to the idea. I wanted to tell you sooner but…” she shrugged, then frowned “are you okay Chat, you’ve gone a bit pale?”

“Y-yeah, fine” he didn’t sound fine, his voice a few octaves higher than usual.

Ladybug looked pained “I… I know it’s a shock, and neither of us is really ready for something like this – especially with what’s been going on lately… I won’t blame you if you don’t want anything to do with- “

“-hey…” Chat strode forward, grabbing her arms gently and rubbing soothing circles with his thumbs “it is a shock, but I’d never abandon you my Lady.”

She gave a half smile, but shook her head “I don’t want you to stay with me just because of the baby Chat…”

“Ladybug” he moved his hand under her chin, pulling her face up lightly to meet his eyes hoping she could read the sincerity there “I’ve been in love with you since I was fifteen, you are the only one I’ve ever wanted, I’m afraid you just may well be stuck with me for life…”

She snorted, pushing him away with a finger on his nose as she had done so many times before when he teased her. Chat chuckled, rubbing his nose, and sat down on the edge of the platform. A few seconds passed by before Ladybug joined him, though he noticed she kept a space between them whereas before she would have sat close so she could lean in and steal his warmth.

“Do you understand now why I think we sort of need to share our identities now?” she asked him, staring across the waking city.

“Yeah…” he agreed quietly, running a hand through his hair “I… suppose this means I better confess something.”

“Mmm?”

“I… please don’t get too mad, but I… may have accidentally discovered your identity.”

“You… what?”

“I didn’t mean to… I saw you de-transform.”

“Oh…” she didn’t really know how to feel about that, though a part of her felt relived. She had worried for a long time if Chat would be disappointed with the girl beneath the mask… the fact he already knew, and was still there, was quite comforting. “So, you know I’m…?”

“Marinette” he nodded. It sounded odd to hear him say her real name, and she found her heart leapt with the odd familiarity at the sound of it on his tongue. “I really should have figured it out years ago, it seems so obvious now… especially after Evillustrator.”

Ladybug laughed, for the first time since he’d returned, and he found himself relishing the sound. “I thought for sure you would, but you spent the entire time being a cocky flirt.”

“I suppose you may have reminded me of my Lady, and now we know why don’t we, princess?” he grinned, which only made her laugh more.

While she was laughing, Chat had a realisation that made him hit his head with his palm “oh, I just realised. This is why you’ve been so distant lately isn’t it? And the doctors’ appointments, and secret chats with Alya?” he let out a relieved laugh, falling back onto the platform so he was lying down “oh, you don’t know how relieved I am, I was so worried I’d done something to upset you, or you had moved on with Luka, and Alya-“

“-whoa, whoa, whoa” Ladybug interrupted him, frowning “how do you know about all that? Have you been following me?”

Chat lifted his head, his cheeks turning pink and his ears lying back against his head.

“Have you been following me Chat?” she fixed him with a glare.

“I… kind of… um…” he sat back up, rubbing the back of his neck and looking anywhere but at her face “well, we… know each other. I think we’re rather close, actually, though I don’t have a lot of experience with friends so maybe not that close but…”

Ladybug was squinting at him while he spoke, taking in the blush and the habit of rubbing his neck, the messy blonde hair that she’d been seeing a lot more of recently… suddenly a name sprang to her mind, and a lot of Chat’s behaviours of late made more sense to her. “Chat… are you… Adrien?”

He stopped talking, ears snapping up straight and alert, staring at her.

“Oh my- “she slapped a hand over her mouth.

“I know…” he looked away, ears flattening in shame “I’m sorry…”

“Why?” she asked, mystified by his apology.

“You deserve better than me.”

Her eyebrows shot up in surprised and she clicked her tongue. “Huh… you know, I always thought that _you_ deserved better than _me_.”

“Impossible” he said firmly “you’re amazing and I’m… the son of an insane supervillain.”

“Your father has nothing to do with who _you_ are” she spoke gently, but he could sense the heat of her anger hidden beneath the gentle words.

He shook his head, shutting his eyes tightly “I’m sorry Marinette, I wish I could be more deserving of you. When I found out it was you under the mask, I was… so happy. One of my best friends was also the girl I was in love with? How lucky could I be?! And… then I realised how selfish that was, to drag you down in this mess with me… so I tried to stay away from you but… I couldn’t, I couldn’t stay away- “

“-wait” Ladybug held up a hand, scowling “just… how long have you known I was Ladybug? When did you find out?”

“I uh…” he paused when he saw the annoyed expression on her face “I saw you de-transform during the battle with Hawkmoth…”

She gaped “so… you knew. The whole time you where gone, you knew who I was, and you didn’t bother to let me know you where okay?!”

He said nothing.

Ladybug stood up, anger boiling her blood making it impossible to remain seated, she began to pace the platform “do you have _any_ idea how worried I was? I thought you might have died! You might have died, and I would never know what happened to you! Or that I was the problem, or that you didn’t even want to be my partner anymore? Did you ever think about that?!”

“I did think about it Marinette!” he stood too, tail lashing behind him “I thought I was protecting you, I… I didn’t want to hurt you, but- “

“-but you did, for whatever excuse you can come up with!” Ladybug turned and hissed at him, hot angry tears threatening to spill down her cheeks. She couldn’t believe that all this time he had known who she was, he could have found a way to let her know he was okay, but he didn’t. He let her suffer with not knowing for weeks, for all the reasons he could give her, it still stung. “I… god… I need to go. I’m just too angry right now.”

“Wait, Lady- Mari!” he called out, tried to reach out and catch her arm, but she had already unfurled her yoyo and jumped from the tower, swinging away in wide arches across the city. He itched to chase her but forced himself not to, instead sitting back down on the platform and burying his face in his hands.

He wasn’t sure how long he sat like that, letting everything sink in, but when he looked up again the sun was higher in the sky and there where people screaming somewhere down below.

Supposing he had better see what was happening, even though his heart and mind where elsewhere, he extended his baton and left the tower heading towards the screams. Whatever was going on was near the seine, he passed streams of civilians running away from the scene, and though many of them where yelling he didn’t bother to listen.

He expected a sentimonster of some kind, though he’d have no idea what Mayura was after. The first two had been obvious – the dog-monster to free Gabriel, and the metal-monster was clearly being sent after Master Fu – he couldn’t think of what else she would want, but then again it wasn’t like the peacock miraculous holder was sending out villains screaming her motives like Hawkmoth had done.

He arrived on the street at the same time as Carapace and Rena, all three of them pausing at the sight before them. It was a woman, floating on a mist wearing what looked like lilac robes, long blonde hair billowing behind her like she was suspended in water rather than the air, her eyes unnaturally green and throwing beams of light from a large staff in her hand. On the streets around them random civilians lay on various positions, fast asleep.

“Is that…” Carapace began to ask.

“An akuma” Rena and Chat finished his sentence with bitter voices, Chat feeling the words like ash in his mouth “he’s back. Hawkmoth is back.”

“I am Dreamweaver!” the akuma sang, her voice oddly melodic “all of Paris will sleep, their sweetest dreams becoming tragic nightmares!”

“Oh shut up, you’ve yelled that three times now” an irritated voice snapped Carapace, Rena and Chat out of their stupor, each of them giving a surprised glance at Ladybug who they had only just noticed had already engaged the Akuma in battle, and had apparently been there for a while longer than they had.

“I think bug’s in a bad mood” Carapace noted with raised eyebrows, watching as Ladybug used her yoyo to swing in a wide arch, kicking the staff out of Dreamweaver’s hand, making her scream with rage.

Rena reacted first, the staff landing closest to her, snatching it off the ground before Dreamweaver’s mist could fly her close enough. The fox leapt away and out of reach nimbly, and once Dreamweaver had chased her to a rooftop Rena threw the staff for Carapace to catch, starting an odd game of keep-away.

Chat caught up to Ladybug, who had paused on the street to catch her breath, hands on her knees. “Are you okay m’lady?” he asked gently, reaching out to touch her. He was actually rather impressed how calm he sounded, considering it wasn’t until he saw her hunched over panting that he actually remembered she was pregnant – how he forgot he never knew – was it even safe for her to be in fights anymore? Swinging around like that on her yoyo?

“I’m fine” she snapped at him, eyes glinting, and Chat dropped his hands. She was still angry with him, he didn’t blame her, but that didn’t stop him following when she jumped back into the fight. Now more than ever he needed to protect her, and he was going to stick to her like glue to make sure he could. Ladybug seemed to notice him right on her steps, because she threw him a glare, but otherwise didn’t speak to him directly.

“The Akuma is in her necklace” she called out to Rena across rooftops, just as the fox had jumped up to catch the staff Carapace had thrown back.

“Well, that’s easy enou- “Rena began, only to yelp when Dreamwaver slammed into her side, having leapt off the mist she was using to float around and snatch the staff back off her. There was a struggle, Carapace racing to get to Rena’s side, and a flash of light before Rena sank to the ground fast asleep.

Dreamweaver had gotten back on her mist, floating out of reach by the time the others arrived on the same rooftop as Rena. Carapace crouched down, worriedly checking she was okay, before looking up at the akuma with the type of fire in his eyes that was rarely seen from the more laidback hero.

“I can wake her…” Dreamweaver sang, the purple outline of a butterfly appearing over her face “if Chat Noir and Ladybug give up their miraculous.”

“Ha” Chat let out a harsh laugh, stepping in front of Ladybug before she could even open her mouth to speak. Seeing the butterfly shape had lit a fire under him, and all the anger he’d felt the last few weeks came rising to the surface “nice try Hawkmoth, but we will never give up our miraculous. Nice to see you immediately go back to your usual M.O, akumatizing innocent civilians to do your dirty work. You coward!”

Before Dreamweaver could respond, on behalf of herself or Hawkmoth was anyone’s guess, Carapace’s shield hit her square in the chest and threw her off the floating mist to the street below. Ladybug didn’t miss a beat, sliding past Chat and onto the street below so she could snatch the necklace from Dreamweaver before she recovered, smashing it on the ground and releasing the purple butterfly that she captured in her yoyo. While she was doing this, Chat looked at Carapace.

The turtle hero was still knelt near Rena’s head, putting his returned shield back on his back. He met Chat’s eyes and shrugged, defending his actions “I saw an opportunity. Hawkmoth must be desperate, this akuma was pretty sloppy”. Chat agreed that the akuma wasn’t exactly the most dangerous or complicated one he’d ever faced (even Mr Pigeon had lasted longer in a fight than Dreamweaver had) he knew the real reason Carapace had acted so abruptly. It was obvious in the way he smoothed Rena’s hair from her face – he cared about her and didn’t like seeing her hurt.

Ladybug purified the akuma and bid the newly white butterfly goodbye, looking around as Dreamweavers victims began to wake up from their magical sleep. Most looked confused, though some realisation dawned on them when they saw Chat, Carapace and the newly awoken Rena join Ladybug on the street. The akuma victim turned out to be the owner of a sleep-therapy store that was being shut down due to a lack of business and a vindictive landlord who wanted to sell the store for more money than he was making from renting it, the victim had found out the landlord was deliberately slandering her shop, reducing customers, and in her anger had been akumatised. The hero’s helped her onto a nearby bench, since she seemed unsteady on her feet, and Carapace suggested she try moving her store online…

“Ladybug!” she turned at the call of her name and wished she hadn’t when for the second time in a month a microphone was shoved so far into her face she had to take a step back to avoid getting hit in the nose. “Has Hawkmoth returned?”

“Is that why Chat Noir is back on duty?” another voice asked.

“Ladybug, why wasn’t the threat of Mayura taken as seriously as Hawkmoth?” this question surprised her, and she turned slightly towards the young reporter who’d asked it – a man, with a Weasley face and dark eyes that couldn’t seem to fix on one spot too long dressed in a rather stereotypical tan raincoat. Upon seeing he had her attention he licked his lips and continued in a louder voice so the rest of the gathering crowd could hear “is you had taken down Mayura the first time you defeated Hawkmoth then we wouldn’t have this problem!”

There was a ripple of murmurs among the crowd, most of which sounded like they where agreeing with what he’d said.

“Hang on” Rena stepped forward, a little unsteady on her feet from being knocked out by Dreamweaver and had to be balanced by a hand on her shoulder by Carapace “Mayura never outrightly attacked anyone before now, she only ever worked _for_ Hawkmoth – and she wasn’t there during the fight with Hawkmoth, we can’t fight what isn’t there.”

“So, your agreeing that you ignored the threat of Mayura?”

“That’s not what she said” Carapace defended, and was about to say more until Ladybug held up a hand to stop him, her gaze had never once wavered from the reporter asking the questions.

“We did not ignore the possible threat of Mayura any more than we ignore any threat to this city” she spoke slowly, a forced kind of calm to her words that made one of Chat’s ears twitch “however, until now, Mayura had only ever been taken action a handful of times, but it seems her dedication to Hawkmoth’s cause has increased after his arrest. We assure the citizens of Paris that we will always be here to fight these threats, new or old.”

She then turned away, despite the rabble as the reporters stumbled over other questions to ask – but she could hear sirens approaching and knew the police would arrive soon to disperse the crowd, and she wasn’t in the mood to manage a minefield of questions today. Flicking her yoyo, she zipped away from the crowd to the nearest rooftop – swiftly followed by the other hero’s.

The four didn’t say much, a heavy silence seemed to have a tight grip over them and no one wanted to break it.

“I… guess I’ll see you later” Rena nodded towards Ladybug and Chat, taking off at a fast pace.

“Yeah, I better follow her… make sure she gets home safe” Carapace said, already moving to follow and throwing a wave over his shoulder, leaving Ladybug and Chat Noir alone.

“Ladybug…” Chat began softly.

“Later” she sighed, rubbing her head and holding her yoyo loosely in the other hand ready to leave. “I… just… later, okay?”

Looking at her, seeing how exhausted she obviously was, Chat felt his ears flatten in concern. “I… okay” he agreed, watching her swing her yoyo and disappear into the distance without another word.

“Later” he spoke to the wind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So the talk happened. Marinette is stressed and hurt, and Adrien is in the proverbial dog house. 
> 
> You didn't think I'd give them their happy ever after just yet did you? Nah, these kids got too many issues to work through first. 
> 
> Besides, it hasn't really sunk in for Adrien that he's going to be a dad yet. Speaking to a much of my guy friends who've got kids, the general consensus from them was that it took a lot longer for it to sink in for them then it does for women... probably because they dont have a baby growing inside them... 
> 
> Either way Adrien might want to hurry up and realise a few things before Mari looses her patience and strings him up with that yoyo... or sic's Alya on him, which would be worse?


	11. Chapter Eleven

Marinette woke up to the sound of soft knocking on her bedroom door. She sat up, confused, and pulled the piece of note paper that had gotten stuck to her face when she fell asleep on it off her cheek. She couldn’t remember falling asleep… then again, if she’d planned on sleeping, she wouldn’t have fallen asleep at her desk.

She stood and stretched, feeling her back ache with the movement “urgh, Tikki, I thought I asked you to wake me if I fell asleep anywhere but my bed again?”

“You did” Tikki’s disembodied voice came from the top of the wardrobe where Mari couldn’t see her “but you needed your rest. I thought it best to leave you alone this time.”

Mari huffed, but didn’t disagree with her kwami. Instead she was distracted by the light knocking on her door again.

“Mari?” Alya called through the door.

“Alya” Marinette opened the bedroom door just a crack to peer out “what’s wrong?”

“What’s wrong?” Alya raised an eyebrow “well, for one thing I’m going to guess you fell asleep at your desk _again_ since you’ve got pencil stains all over your face- “

At this Mari grumbled, rubbing at her cheek furiously.

“-and I’m also going to guess you forgot we’re supposed to be meeting up with everyone to celebrate Ivan finally proposing to Mylene? Remember, I showed you the video of how cute it was?”

Mari did remember, it was only a few days ago after all. For Mylene’s birthday Ivan had gotten her what Mari had to admit was the cutest little puppy she’d ever seen, a tiny fluffy thing that Mylene had let out a delighted shriek at when it had popped out of the box and surprised her. It had taken a few minutes to notice the ring tied to the bow on the collar of the puppy. Ivan had recorded the entire thing, sharing it with friends and inviting everyone out to celebrate.

“Oh no…” Mari had forgotten, or rather she’d not realised what day it was. With everything going on it felt like time was getting away from her just a bit…

Alya gave her a sympathetic look. “If you don’t want to go, I mean… if your too tired, I can explain to them why?”

“No, no. I want to go, I just fell asleep” Mari waved her away “just let me get changed.”

She shut the door again, though she was sure she heard Alya mutter something through the wood she didn’t bother to try find out what it was. Unfortunately, she’d planned on doing her laundry tomorrow, leaving her with a limited option for ‘going out’ clothes. Plus, she wanted something flowing, loose. She didn’t have a noticeable baby-bump yet, something she check for daily, but she was paranoid that someone would notice.

She decided to choose one of her own designs, a black flowing shirt of thin but warm black material that had quickly become one of her favourites to work with. It was one of her Chat Noir inspired designs, and said ‘Meow’ in glittering green sequins across the breast with a little paw print underneath. She paired it with torn black jeans and a pair of slightly heeled boots.

Alya was sitting on the couch waiting patient on her phone when Mari rushed from her room to the bathroom, cleaning her face of all the silver pencil markings from falling asleep on paper, and applied a small amount of Smokey eye makeup and red lipstick, and plaiting her hair instead of putting it up into a ponytail.

“Is this okay?” she asked Alya, re-emerging from the bathroom.

Alya looked up from her phone, eyebrows immediately raising in surprise “girl you look _badass_!”

“Thanks” Mari giggled “I just need a jacket and we can go, is it far?”

“Nah, just that new place down the street – you know the one with the red stools?”

“Urgh, I’m too short to get up on the stools properly” Mari groaned, going to her wardrobe for a coat. She nearly shrieked in surprise when she opened the door and Tikki was floating at eye-height inside but managed to swallow the sound into a cough.

“You okay?” Alya called.

“Y-yeah!” Mari answered, though her eyes remained focus on Tikki who was silently pointing to something at the back of the wardrobe. Frowning Mari pulled out the bundle of dark clothing that the kwami was pointing her too and gasped in surprise. She had completely forgotten about this jacket, and it was perfect for her outfit…

Shrugging it on and grabbing a little black purse for Tikki to hide in – the kwami flying into it while holding half a cookie to snack on, she re-joined Alya outside.

“Wow” Alya breathed “why haven’t you shown me that jacket before, is it another one of your designs?”

“Yeah” Mari blushed under Aher best friends intense stare and turned bright red when she quickly snapped a few photos on her phone before she could protest.

“Did you make if you’re the Ladyblog shop? Because I think it would be majorly popular – especially now that Chat Noir is back. The blog has practically blown up since he reappeared!”

“Uh, no…” Mari bit her lip. She’d designed and made the jacket a few days before Chat had gone missing, that’s why she’d shoved it into the back of the wardrobe where she’d eventually forgotten about it. It was a smooth black leather jacket, designed to look a lot like Chat Noir’s suit, with lime green fleece lining the inside to keep warm, a hood with kitty ears, and a little golden bell on the zipper. She’d designed it with the hope she could show it to Chat one day, knowing he’d probably be thrlled with it, but had no intention of putting it on the ladyblog store. This design was special, for herself, but she couldn’t tell Alya that without raising more questions. Instead she said “it took me ages, and finding the right fabrics… I’ll probably tweak the design a bit before I even think about adding it or something similar to the blog.”

“Tweak?” Alya cried, spinning Mari around by her shoulders so she could see the back of the jacket “it looks amazing!”

“Thanks’ Alya” Mari grinned, moving to leave while the red head followed still fawning over the jacket.

Despite Marinette forgetting about the meet-up, they where still not the last people to arrive, though they weren’t the first either. It had actually been a while since Mari had gotten to catch up with a few of her old school friends, and she loved catching up with them. At some point she split up from Alya who was talking with Alix and Kim about their latest competitive escapade, to talk with Juleka and Rose about a piece of art they where both working on for a new urban gallery opening nearby. Somewhere else in the little bar they could hear the loud tones of Chloe’s voice, telling anyone who would listen how her father had made her manager of one of a hotel that was failing and she’d dragged it back from ruin, and Max seemed to be having a rather animated conversation with Nathaniel and Marc about videogame design art.

“That jacket is awesome by the way Marinette, did you design it?” Juleka commented.

“Yeah” Mari smiled, blushing a little “Alya and I opened a store on the Ladyblog for my hero themed designs, but there’s some I like to keep for myself.”

“The best ones!” Alya, having overheard her, yelled out from nearby making the other girls laugh.

“It really does look amazing, your extremely talented” a softer voice spoke from behind her. She recognised it instantly, and fought to keep a polite smile on her face when she felt her genuine grin begin to slip as she turned to greet him.

She didn’t know why, but she felt uncomfortable seeing Luka again. Probably because of his outburst in the coffee shop about her feelings for Adrien… and then finding out Adrien _is_ Chat after she denied her feelings to him… but the blue haired musician had nothing but a warm smile on his face as he greeted her, and she couldn’t help but push aside that uncomfortable feeling. He was her friend after all.

“Hello again Luka” she greeted him, taking a sip of the soda in her hand.

“Again?” Juleka questioned.

“We had coffee a few days ago” Luka explained to his sister, only glancing at her momentarily before his eyes landed back on Mari.

“You didn’t tell me that!” Juleka cried, swatting his shoulder playfully.

He looked back to his sister, the siblings engaging in some kind of conversation, but Marinette was distracted when Rose leaned close to her, asking “hey Marinette um… why is Adrien staring at you?”

“What?!” Mari exclaimed, looking around the room in surprise until her eyes met bright green ones. For a moment, she felt captured by his stare, because for a moment due to the dark lighting in the bar and the shadows on his face he’d looked far more like Chat than Adrien…

“He’s been looking over here for a few minutes” Rose continued, seeing the way Marinette blushed even in the dark “…I’m surprised he came actually, I’ve read some terrible things in the papers and on the internet recently… all of them not true of course! But it must be horrible for him.”

“Yeah…” Mari tore her gaze from his and stared down at her drink “he’s not had it easy lately. He moved in with Nino a little while ago though, it seems to have helped cheer him up, but there’s still occasions when he gets harassed on the street because of what his stupid father did… but we look out for him, and he does his best not to let it get him down, but it bothers him.”

“Well its good that he knows your there for him” Rose patted her arm “and let him know if he needs anything, we’re here for him too.”

Mari gave her a smile and a nod, looking back around to try and spot him again, but he was gone. She turned her head, searching for bright blonde hair, but didn’t spot him and turned back to her friends feeling slightly disappointed.

“If he’s being harassed on the street should he have come to a crowded bar?” Luka asked, and though Mari thought she might be imagining it there was an odd edge to his voice.

“I don’t think he’d want to become a hermit Luka” Juleka rolled her eyes “getting out is probably good for him anyway, running away from the press would only make it seem like he was guilty when he’s not.”

Luka looked doubtful “is he though?”

“What do you mean?” Rose frowned.

“Well think about it… Mayura starts attacking the city, sets his father free and now Hawkmoth has returned…”

Marinette stared at him “Luka… are you trying to suggest that _Adrien_ is Mayura?”

“I don’t know… its just suspicious. I can’t think of anyone who would like Gabriel Agreste enough to want to help him…”

“Luka…” Juleka gave her brother an admonishing look.

“Adrien isn’t Mayura” Marinette shook her head firmly.

“How can we be sure? Think about it…”

“For one thing, Mayura is very obviously a woman” Mari interrupted him, annoyance clear in her voice as she pointed a finger at him “and Adrien wouldn’t hurt a fly, especially not to help his father-“

“Okay, okay” Luka held his hands up in surrender, raising his eyebrows at the shorter bluenette “but just think about it Mari, I know you had feelings for him and he’s a close friend but- “

“-my feelings have nothing to do with it” Mari growled, turning her back on Luka, Juleka and Rose as she stalked through the bar. She vaguely heard the two girls admonishing Luka as she left them, but she didn’t strain to overhear what they said. She was too annoyed, feeling her blood boil at Luka’s insinuations. She decided to wander to the bar, to get another drink and cool off before trying to find Alya – otherwise she’d blurt out the entire exchange to her best friend and Luka probably wouldn’t survive the red head’s wrath.

Besides her obvious irritation with Luka, she found herself wondering about what had happened between them that morning when she’d discovered Chat was Adrien and that the entire time he’d disappeared he’d been well aware of who she was. She’d thought about it a lot during the day, and while her anger had eventually subsided it left behind the fact that she still felt hurt, oddly betrayed, by his actions but… she could also understand things from his point of view. She also knew that leaving him, in her anger, had been the right choice to avoid saying anything hurtful because of her own hurt feelings, but knew it had likely upset him – and with everything Adrien was going through at the moment, she couldn’t help but feel terrible to have piled more problems on his shoulders.

She was a few steps away from the bar when a hand wrapped itself in her free one and she was tugged gently out of the crowd of people into a dark alcove of the wall she hadn’t even noticed. For a moment she panicked, almost dropping her soda and her free hand flying towards her purse where Tikki hid.

“It’s me” he leaned close enough to whisper in her ear, so she’d hear him over the music and the crowd.

“Adrien!” Mari exclaimed in relief, her heart fluttering in her chest.

“Sorry, did I scare you?”

“Hmm” she threw him a look in the shadows, able to see his face a bit better now her eyes had adjusted and was pretty sure he was smirking “nearly.”

“Nearly” he repeated, rolling his eyes with good humour before clearing his throat “you, uh… looked a bit upset. Are you alright?”

She was a little surprised, and hesitated before answering him “I’m… okay. Actually, I kind of want to apologise for this morning…”

He titled his head, she saw the vague outline of him, but couldn’t quite see his expression. So, when he tugged her hand (she only now realised he’d never dropped it) for her to follow him outside, she did so wondering exactly where they where going. There was a significant chill in the air now that the sun was fully down, the cold hitting her like a solid wall as soon as they stepped out of the door, and she wanted nothing more than to find some warm spot to curl up in, but she followed Adrien onto the street and a little away from the bar entrance where a group of young men where smoking and laughing.

“Sorry, I just thought we should come out here where it’s a bit easier to talk… and hear” Adrien finally turned and said, offering her a small smile.

She returned the smile “your right, it was getting nosier in the there the more people drank… and by people, I mean Chloe.”

“Yeah, she’s a loud drinker” Adrien shut his eyes like he was remembering something bad, then snorted and looked at her again “what where you saying about this morning?”

“I wanted to apologise.”

“Why?” he seemed genuinely confused.

Mari blinked “well… I shouldn’t have gotten so angry with you. I walked away because I didn’t want to hurt you by saying something I didn’t mean when I was upset, but I probably hurt you anyway by walking away like that so… I’m sorry.”

“Oh” he still seemed a bit confused, tilting his head “you, uh, didn’t need to apologise for how you felt Mari. But, not that I’m getting my hopes up, does that mean your… not angry with me anymore?”

“I’m not angry…” she spoke slowly, thinking about it “but… I am still upset. Knowing that you chose not to contact me, I don’t know if you didn’t realise how much it would hurt me or not but…”

Adrien said nothing, letting her talk as she glanced down, wringing her hands together anxiously while she tried to find the right words. The hollow, sad, look she’d had when he’d approached in the park weeks ago was back, and again it was his fault. Again.

“I had nightmares, that you died. That I found you… broken on the street. Or that you where screaming for me in some hospital and I couldn’t find you” Mari let out a harsh laugh, though their was no humour to it, and he could see wetness in her eyes when she spared him a glance before looking away into the street “I didn’t know what to do, for the first time if what felt like forever I didn’t have my partner… and it felt like it was my fault.”

“Your fault?” Adrien was taken aback.

She nodded, sniffing a little as she still didn’t look at him “when we fought Hawkmoth, I should have been faster…. If he hadn’t knocked me down, then you- “

“-Marinette” Adrien took a gentle hold of her chin and pulled her round to look at him “nothing that happened in that fight was your fault. You where, are, the strongest of us. I knew what I was doing when I tackled him, I just didn’t expect him to try remove my ring when we fell. I can’t apologise enough for disappearing but… I really thought you would be better off without me. I didn’t want you to be caught up in the rumours they’re telling about me, you’re too good for that but… turns out, I really am selfish. I couldn’t stay away.”

“I’m glad you didn’t” she muttered, pulling her chin out of his hold. He thought she was going to walk away, but she surprised him by leaning forward so she could rest her forehead on his shoulder. “But... I’m not sure if I can just throw myself into a full relationship with you, like it was when we where just Chat and Ladybug…”

Adrien sighed, bringing his arms up to rest on the small of her back in a loose hug, turning to bury his nose in her hair “I understand… I hurt you. I need to earn back your trust.”

Marinette said nothing, just buried her head further into his shoulder.

“And I will” he said this with enough conviction to make her laugh “ill be the master of trust earning!”

“Oh, please don’t take tips from your anime and manga collections” she groaned, laughing.

“Why not? Their romance lessons paid off in the end, didn’t they?” he grinned, wiggling his eyebrows at her.

“Or I got some kind of Stockholm syndrome” she tapped thoughtfully on her chin.

“Hey!” he whined, which she laughed at “you wound me purr-incess.”

“Ugh, if I had any doubts about you being Chat they’re gone now” she commented dryly, shaking her head at the proud smirk on his face.

“Hey uh…” his expression suddenly morphed into something uncertain as he rubbed behind his neck “um… while I’m still trying to win back your trust can I… is it okay if I still… I mean, I still want to be involved with the baby if you… if you want me to be?”

She stared at him “of course I want you to be! Did you really think I wouldn’t?”

“I wasn’t sure…” he sounded relived she’d said yes, letting out a sigh “I mean, for one thing how are we going to explain this to our friends? I mean, without Alya murdering us for being together behind her back without also explaining we spend half our time in magical spandex and leather?”

“That sounds kinky, she might enjoy the story” Marinette snickered, especially when she noticed Adrien’s red cheeks “I don’t know how we’ll explain things, honestly, but it’ll be okay…”

“Yeah, it will” he took her hand again, squeezing it lightly. “So, does this mean if I was to ask you on a date, a real date… you might say yes?”

“What does a ‘real date’ consist of?” she asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Well, something that doesn’t involve a hurried picking on a rooftop in the early hours of the morning” he laughed “not that I didn’t enjoy all of those dates but… I was thinking maybe dinner and a movie? Romantic walk afterwards, perhaps flowers…”

“Always a romantic at heart hmm?” she smiled at him softly “I suppose if you were to ask, I would probably say yes…”

He grinned, leaning into her face “so, will you?”

“Will I what?” she feigned ignorance.

“Tease” he breathed out a laugh “will you go on a date with me, whenever is good for you?”

“Hmm… I suppose I don’t have much to do after class tomorrow, if that would be good with you?”

“Perfect!” he looked practically giddy, pressing a light kiss onto her forehead before he pulled away “I can pick you up from class if you like?”

“You don’t have to…”

“But I’d like to” he looked at her with what she could only describe as puppy eyes “if it’s okay?”

“Alright, I don’t mind” she laughed “just stop giving me the puppy look, and lets go back inside. I’m freezing and this jacket isn’t thick enough when your as sensitive to the cold as I am!”

“Puppy look?” he acted offended, following her back to the bar entrance “I think you’ll find it’s the kitten look. Not that I’m a kitten, I’m a full-grown cat. No, wait, a sleek panther- “

“-more like a goofy tom” she snickered.

“Blaspheme” he hissed, then just before she reached the bar entrance he put a hand on her shoulder, stopping her “but don’t think I didn’t notice this jacket, and the Chat Noir shirt your wearing… are you trying to drive me nuts?”

The idea her outfit had any effect on him sent a shiver down her spine, but she didn’t let him know that. Tossing her braid as she continued walking into the bar, she gave him a look over her shoulder and winked “nah, just proving I’m Chat Noir’s number one fan!”

His eyes widened, but he didn’t reply.

“Hey, there you are!” Alya appeared on Marinette’s elbow the second she passed back into the bar, pulling her to where their old classmates had all congregated as a group around Mylene and Ivan. “Where have you been?”

“Oh, just outside. I needed some fresh air, Adrien kept me company” she shrugged, aware that Adrien had entered the bar again behind her.

“Oh, are you alright?” Alya asked lowly “it’s nothing to do with, uh… code purple?”

“Code purple?” Mari raised an eyebrow, as far as she knew they didn’t have a ‘code purple’ in the list of codes they actually did have.

“Yeah, purple, I just made it up. You know, since blue for a boy and pink for a girl, combine and its purple!” Alya whispered so no one would overhear her.

Mari laughed “uh, okay. No, nothing to do with code purple.”

“Oh good. C’mon then, Mylene is showing us the ring!”

Mari allowed herself to be dragged along by Alya – but not before looking back, meeting Adrien’s gaze as he walked over to stand with Nino and Max. For the first time in a while, she felt light-hearted, butterfly’s erupting in her stomach as she realised those green eyes had been fixed on her before she’d looked at him.

“-it was tied to the collar, honestly best birthday gifts ever – and look at him, my precious little puff ball baby!” Mylene was showing them a picture on her phone now of the puppy Ivan had gotten to propose with.

“Aww” the girls cooed, some even asking Mylene what she’d named the puppy.

“Isn’t it cute Mari?” Alya asked, noticing her best friend seemed somewhat distracted.

Marinette glanced at the photo, and while it was cute, she couldn’t resist lifting her eyes to meet green ones again as she said “yeah, but I’m more of a cat person.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh dear god I'm so tired. 
> 
> But at least these two finally have some kind of understanding - now Adrien is totally going to read all his manga and watch all his anime on how to win a girl back.


End file.
